RFT-DCA Converter Enhancements in Word 6.0 for Windows |
Q108870
The information in this article applies to:
-
Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0
SUMMARY
Included below is a summary of corrections made to the RFTDCA.CNV converter
in Word 6.0 that is used to convert between Word 6.0 for Windows and
Revisable-Form Document Content Architecture (RFT-DCA) file format. All
improvements listed here have been made since the immediately previous Word
2.0c product release. These include:
Character Format Termination
When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, any character property
that was originally terminated (turned-off) at the very beginning of a
line is not terminated in Word. Instead, it carries forward until
redefined later in the document. This problem has been corrected.
Character Mapping
When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, superscripted numeric
EBCDIC characters 1 through 9, the EBCDIC acute accent, and the EBCDIC
caron accent are incorrectly converted. These characters are now mapped
to the most similar values available in the ANSI character set used by
Word.
Columns
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, "Flowing and
Balanced," "Flowing but not Balanced," and "Related Text" columns all
revert to normal, single-column wrapping text. Support for all three
column types has been added in the Word 6.0 revision of the RFT-DCA
converter as follows:
- "Flowing and Balanced" columns are now converted to columns balanced
with continuous section breaks.
- "Flowing but not Balanced" columns are now converted to
columns.
- "Related Text" columns are now converted to tables.
When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, column breaks are
not always correctly preserved. This problem has been corrected.
Endnote Position
When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, endnotes positioned at
end-of-document or with a Locate Endnotes code, and endnotes when
combined in a single document with footnotes are not positioned
correctly. This problem has been corrected.
Font Mapping
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, RFT-DCA Typestyles
(otherwise known as Generic Font IDs or GFIDs) are mapped to non-
TrueType fonts such as Courier or Pica. Because fixed width fonts are
commonly used in conjunction with spaces to horizontally align text
in RFT-DCA format and non-TrueType fonts don't always allot spaces the
same width as characters for on-screen display, this mapping often
results in compromise of horizontal alignment for display.
All RFT-DCA font styles are now mapped to the TrueType font Courier
New. The result is a significant improvement in overall document
appearance following conversion.
Hanging Indents
When a Word 2.0c document is converted to RFT-DCA format, hanging indent
formats are not always emulated correctly. Hanging indents are now
correctly mapped to appropriate combinations of RFT-DCA indent and
required backspace codes.
Indexes and Tables of Contents
When an RFT-DCA document is opened in Word 2.0c, index and table of
contents entry markers are lost, and generated indexes and tables of
contents are converted as normal text with loss of indentation
formatting.
Index and table of contents entry markers are still not retained, but
the formatted appearance of generated indexes and tables of contents is
now retained.
Line Spacing
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, exact line spacing is
applied by default. The purpose of this option is to minimize pagination
differences. However, the tradeoff is possible cropping of text,
disappearance of underline formatting, and so forth. Therefore, single
line spacing is now applied by default.
If you want to have exact line spacing applied by default, see the
Modifying Conversion Options topic under File Conversion in the
WDREADME.HLP help file installed with Word 6.0.
Margins
When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, margin changes are
not always retained. This problem has been corrected.
Tables
Several improvements and corrections have been made to table conversion
both to and from RFT-DCA format. These include:
- When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, Line Format
Change (LFC) codes are inserted following every table row. This
results in unwanted blank lines appearing between table rows when the
document is opened from RFT-DCA format into DisplayWrite. LFCs are
now only emitted, only if column widths or other line formatting
changes.
- When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, if space-
before is set to any value other than 0" and/or line spacing is set to any value other than Auto or 1 within a table cell, table appearance
is compromised. Line spacing and space before are now emulated by
inserting carriage returns before paragraphs to most closely
approximate required spacing.
- When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, single-column,
multi-row tables collapse to normal text. This problem has been
corrected.
- When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, tables
containing greater than 10 columns collapse to normal text. As many
as 49 columns within a table (the absolute maximum allowed by RFT-
DCA) are now supported for export from Word to RFT-DCA format.
Minimum column width of 3 characters still applies.
- When a Word 2.0c document is saved as RFT-DCA format, if table cells
contain tabs, the table layout may be compromised. Coordination of
tabs used to emulate table layout in conjunction with normal tabs
within cells has been improved to the extent that model differences
between Word and RFT-DCA formats allow.
- When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, RFT-DCA Required
Carrier Returns (paragraph marks) following Tables of Tabular Columns
are lost. The visual result is that space that originally separates
the table from text that follows is lost. This problem has been
corrected.
- When an RFT-DCA document is opened into Word 2.0c, inter-column gaps
(column spacing) within Text Column Tables is not always correctly
retained. The average column gap is now used to determine column
spacing in conversion to Word.
- Support has been added for export of merged-table cells.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information on current RFT-DCA converter limitations, double-click
the Help icon in Word, type readme, press ENTER
twice, choose File Conversion, choose Conversion Limitations, and view the
"Converting Between Microsoft Word 6.0 and RFT-DCA" topic.
Additional query words:
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