Using a Command Entry for Formatting in WordPerfect

Doing the WordPad test shows that there is an error in WordPerfect 10 and 11 which you can show even without Instant Text: Copy the Heart is normal S₁-S₂ sequence from WordPad and paste it in WordPerfect and... it flushes to the left.

So, what do you do now? You could (and should) send a problem report to Corel and wait for a year. A quicker solution is to do a glossary entry using commands.

A preliminary step is to assign a shortcut key for subscripting. Here is how to assign Alt+Shift+F9 to toggling the subscript mode:

1. Go to Tools / Settings / Customize /Keyboards / Edit
    
2. In Feature Categories, select format
    
3. Under Assign a feature to the shortcut key, select Attribute Subscript
    
4. Select the key F9+Alt+Shift
    
5. Click on Assign Feature to Key.

Now that we have a shortcut key, we can use it to type S₁ in the following manner: We type the shortcut key before and after the digit 1. So we type:

S{Alt Shift F9}1{Alt Shift F9}

and likewise, for S₂:

S{Alt Shift F9}2{Alt Shift F9}

Now we know enough to do the command entry for Heart is normal S₁-S₂:

1. Enter the phrase in the glossary editor as usual without subscripts: Heart is normal S1-S2.
    
2. Position the cursor before 1 and click on the command button
    
3. Type the key {Alt Shift F9} in the command editor and click on OK or press Enter to close it
    
4. Do the same after 1 and before and after 2
    
5. Click on OK to close the Add Glossary Entry dialog.

Now we have the command entry. In the Glossary Viewer it will appear as follows with the prefix {command} added by Instant Text:

hins {command}Heart is normal S{Alt Shift F9}1{Alt Shift F9}-S{Alt Shift F9}2{Alt Shift F9}

More importantly, it now circumvents the WordPerfect deficiency in handling RTF and works correctly! Both Instant Text and WordPerfect are useful tools, neither of which is perfect. The art of using them is to find how to make them work.

Jean Ichbiah