Editing the same document in both Word and WordPerfect

February 27, 2006 12:04 PM

How to avoid back-and-forth WordPerfect-Word conversion from screwing up documents?

Because of the limitations of the software available to me at work, I have to convert files back and forth from Word to WordPerfect. The formatting and particularly the footnotes get screwed up after doing this for a while. Is there any way to avoid this?

I thought RTF would be a good intermediate format but it's not.

I can't install software on the work machines but stuff that runs on a USB drive is a possibility.

Does anyone have any experience with the new crop of online word processor websites like Writely?

posted by Grinder to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Save as .txt file and use Notepad/Wordpad?

Use Openoffice which can read/save either format?
posted by daHIFI at 12:08 PM on February 27, 2006

Portable AbiWord | Portable OpenOffice.
posted by Firas at 12:19 PM on February 27, 2006

I love writely, but I have no experience importing/exporting to/from -- I use it simply as an online journal/notepad. Not very helpful, I know.
posted by misterbrandt at 12:38 PM on February 27, 2006

I have found the people at WordPerfect universe to be knowledgable and helpful.
This is from their tips and tricks for endnotes.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:39 PM on February 27, 2006

I like using .rtf files, they are like .txt but hold formatting between just about any text editor from wordpad to word, wordperfect, open office, write, etc.... Bold, italics, font size, alignment.. It's great if you are on a machine that doesn't happen to have any "real" word processors installed too.
posted by parallax7d at 12:58 PM on February 27, 2006

Well, IME the only thing that can fully read documents produced in Word is MSWord. But it's possible to get by if the documents are fairly simple. I've not seen another WordProcessor that can handle nested tables.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:04 PM on February 27, 2006

OpenOffice might be an option, but I'm not sure if I can run unofficial applications at work.

.txt is not an option - I need stuff like footnotes.

The WP universe stuff looks good. Thanks!
posted by Grinder at 1:35 PM on February 27, 2006

OpenOffice 2.0 can indeed open WordPerfect files, but cannot save a file in WPD format. (Strange but true.)

Perhaps this is a foolish question, but why do you need to do the continual conversions? If you are used to using one program, why not install the other and learn to use it as well? You don't have to love it, just use it.
posted by yclipse at 4:38 PM on February 27, 2006

I can't install applications at work and I don't want to pay for something else at home.
posted by Grinder at 1:02 AM on February 28, 2006

Grinder, can you run executables off a USB memory stick or the like at the office? I'd give portable OpenOffice a spin, or AbiWord.
posted by Firas at 6:27 AM on February 28, 2006