User:Laudaka/WordPerfect 12 CM bugs

The title of this article is abbreviated for practical reasons, the correct article title should be:

WordPerfect 12 Classic Mode bugs

This is a bug list that is both intended to be a first start for Corel to fix the bugs in the Classic Mode of WordPerfect 12 in the next version and intended to be helpful for users of the Classic Mode. It is a synopsis of a part of this wikipedia.org article:WordPerfect 12

Note: This article/bug list is not finished and I'm even not sure whether it should be in wikipedia.org . Maybe wikibooks.org is a better place. I even considered the possibility of just e-mailing this bug list to Corel, but I think it's a better idea to put this bug list in a wikiwiki so other people can add workarounds to the bugs and/or file more complete bug reports. Of course Corel needs data about the used Windows version and installed Windows Service Packs, and also the installed WordPerfect 12 Service Packs so they're sure they can reproduce the bugs. This information is still missing in this bug list of the Classic Mode. I considered also making a feature request list for the Classic Mode but I think what I wrote in the WordPerfect 12 article and what many other users wrote in the WordPerfect article should be already helpful for Corel. (Of course when you read this the WordPerfect 12 article might already have been edited by other people, and it wouldn't be just written by me anymore.) Paulus/laudaka Laudaka's talk page 13:26, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Note: Some notes are for a friend of mine that has a much better command of English and is better in debugging than me. Those notes are clearly marked with "For Eveline".

Some notes about this bug list

Used abreviations in this bug list:

WP 5.1: WordPerfect 5.1 DOS (so not the much less used 5.1 Windows version)
WP 12: WordPerfect 12 Windows

And we need to say something about how we write about function keys in this bug list. We've chosen to give the function keys names ourself, those are often a compromise between their WP 5.1 name and their function in WP 12. Those names should be changed to the official names in WordPerfect 12. I can't do this because I don't have access to a computer with WordPerfect 12 any more. Not using any key stroke names makes this bug list harder to read for WordPerfect 12 users so that doesn't seem a good idea to me. (user:laudaka)

The bug list itself

F1 Restore faultly works like Undo

Short description: The F1 (Undelete) menu claims the user can Restore deletions (WP 5.1 style) but when the user chooses to do this WP12 faultly performs an Undo (WP 12 style).

Reproducing this bug: key stroke F1 (Undelete), option 1 Restore

Long description: This is the menu the user gets when pressing F1 (Undelete):

Undelete: 1 Restore 2 Previous Deletion

This menu is identical to the F1 menu of WP 5.1 . But when the user selects 1 Restore WP 12 should Restore the last deletion, and of course it should restore it at the insertion position and NOT where it was originally. (No need to say that a user might choose to restore something at the place where it was deleted in the first place.) But what WP 12 is Undo-ing the last edit action. No need to further explain why this is a bug.

Workaround: Trivial.

Related bugs: F1 Previous Deletion is bugilly Redo

F1 Previous Deletion is bugilly Redo

Short description: The F1 (Undelete) menu claims the user can view Previous Deletions (WP 5.1 style) and if she/he wishes restore them. But when the user attempts do this WP12 unexpectedly performs a Redo (a WP 12 feature not present in WP 5.1).

Reproducing this bug: key stroke F1 (Undelete), option 2 Previous Deletion

Long description: This is the menu the user gets when pressing F1 (Undelete):

Undelete: 1 Restore 2 Previous Deletion

This menu is identical to the F1 menu of WP 5.1 . The bug becomes apparent when the user selects the option 2 Previous Deletion. WP 12 should do something that is never present in software for MS Windows. It should show the previous deletion highlighted/selected, but the user should still be in the menu at the bottom of the window, not in her/his document. (If the user wishes she/he wishes she/he can restore the deletion, or she/he may choose to view the next previous deletion.) Also WP 12 should show the previous deletions at the insertion position, not at the position where they were deleted. So WP 12 should not show any additions to the document or other changes when the user uses Previous Deletion. Shamefully WP 12 does nothing of that kind., it bugilly performs an Undo, which is definitely completely something else than showing the previous deletion.

Workaround: You can use (Classic Mode) Restore to (WP 12) Undo your document up to the point where the deletion you want to restore is selected. Then unfortunately you will have to use the menu bar to select Edit, Copy from the menu bar. Now make sure you (Classic Mode) Previous Deletion to (WP 12) Redo your document completely. Only then select from the menu bar Edit, Paste. If you forget to (WP 12) Redo your text you will lose all the changes you made after the deletion you're trying to retrieve.

Related bugs: F1 Restore faultly works like Undo

Ctrl-F4 incorrect menu with an active selection

'Short description: When the user has made a selection and presses Ctrl-F4 (Move) WP 12 reacts in the wrong way. Either it comes up with the Ctrl-F4 Classic Mode menu for no selection active instead of the Ctrl-F4 Classic Mode menu for selection active, or it comes up with a Close window dialog box.

Reproducing this bug: Make sure you've made a selection. Press Ctrl-F4 (Move).

Long description: When the user has made a selection and presses Ctrl-F4 (Move) WP 12 reacts in the wrong way. WP 12 reacts in two different ways. It seems to be randomily determined what way WP 12 reacts.

The first way WP 12 incorrectly reacts is by coming up with the Ctrl-F4 Classic Mode menu for no selection active' that reads as follows:

For Eveline: Could you find out how this menu looks like?

(Eveline will correct this) Move: 1 Move Sentence 2 Move Paragraph 3 Retrieve Block

But of course a Classic Mode menu for moving/cutting and copying should appear. Because right now this menu is unfortunately completely lacking in the Classic Mode we'll have to make a guess how it would look like in the Classic Mode based on how the menu looked like in the real thing, WP 5.1. This is how the menu looked like in WP 5.1:

For Eveline: I'll look up in my Dutch WP 5.1 manual how this menu looked like in Dutch, because none of us ever used the English WP 5.1. This should give us at least the right order of options. Could you find out after that whether I translated the Dutch words correctly? Copying and Cutting Rectangles and Tabular Columns should also be somewhere in the WP 12 menu's. I believe that saves us the trouble of finding someone with a real working copy of WP 5.1

(I will correct this, and after that Eveline will correct it further if needed.) Move: 1 Move Block 2 Move Tabular Column 3 Move Rectangle

%%%%instead of the Ctrl-F4 Classic Mode menu for selection active, or it comes up with a Close window dialog box.

Workaround:

Related bugs:

This is not the case for Ctrl-F4 (Move) which should give you the possibility to Move or Copy a Block but which either gives the menu that you would get in WP 5.1 when no block was selected, or even more confusing gives you a Close window dialog box. This random behaviour is a serious bug. The workaround is clumsy. Use on the menu bar Edit, Cut or Edit, Copy. You will unfortunately have to do that with the mouse. Retrieving of Blocks works fine. Retrieving of tabular columns and rectangles works fine too, but is rather confusing to use as you will have to use the menu bar to cut or copy them.

Fx Example bug

Short description:

Reproducing this bug:

Long description:

Workaround:

Related bugs:

Key combinations with F4

Alt-F4 (Selection On/Close/Exit) is again a case of something that is not really a bug but that is really clumsy. Pressing Alt-F4 once switches on selection/block, and you can use the arrow keys and other movement keys to select text without having to constantly press Shift like you normally need to do in other Windows programs. But there's nowhere an indicator that says that selection is on, so that is sloppy. And pressing Alt-F4 again has not the effect it should have: selection off. Instead of that it brings up an Exit dialog box. To switch a selection off you need to click anywhere in text, clumsy for users who preferred and didn't need to use the mouse in WP 5.1. For the use of Alt-F4 instead of F7 see F7.

Key combinations with F5

F5 (Open File/List) works as you would expect. It opens the Open File menu dialog. But previewing a file without opening it is not possible, and sometimes that is just what you want, to get a quick impression of a file without leaving the Open File menu.

Shift-F5 (Date/Paragraph) has a bug again. When you choose for Define it works as Date Text.

Ctrl-F5 (Document In/Out) has the option DOS Text, which gives the following option that some users will really like: Retrieve (CR/LF to [SRt] in HZone). This can even be used to reformat a readme.txt file that has been formatted by line breaks which show up as [HRt] in WP 12. By saving the readme.txt as DOS text and retrieving it you can nearly get all the paragraphs right. The HZone is the hyphenation zone, which actually consists of a left and a right zone. When a line break is in the hyphenation zone in a DOS text WP 12 will recognize that it is not the end of a paragraph but just the end of a line. Of course for that the margins and font size have to be set such that the end of the lines that are full of words are within the hyphenation zone. Use a rather large hyphenation zone, and don't forget that you have to use a fixed width font. In WP 12 only Courier New is available for this.

Alt-F5 (Reference) looks fine. It has a lot of the legacy menu's that all bring you finally to the appropriate WP 12 menu.

Key combinations with F6

F6 (Bold) works for switching on and of Bold when no selection is on. When F6 used to make a selection Bold it is not working, it has no effect. Another bug unfortunately.

Shift-F6 (Center) works fine.

Ctrl-F6 (Special Tab) doesn't work that easy as in WP 5.1 but offers the new possibilities of WP 12.

Alt-F6 (Flush Right) works fine and produces a [Hd Flush Right] code that only flushes right one line, which is exactly what it should do. Funny is that it is still possible to make text overlap, but someone has to be really clumsy too do that, so we don't consider this a bug. You don't need to shield your user of every little mistake he could make, especially not if he has the powerful tool of Reveal Codes to correct any silly mistakes.

Key combinations with F7

Very importantly, F7 (Close/Exit) does not work most of the time to close windows. But you can use Alt-F4 (Close/Exit) instead of F7. The fact that F7 doesn't work most of the time is clearly a serious bug. As for allowing the use of Alt-F4 instead of F7 we think this is a good thing. It is definitely not WP 5.1 like but if both F7 and Alt-F4 would have worked it would have been more user friendly for most users than with just F7 working for Close/Exit. Often F7, when it works, and also Alt-F4 invoke a Close document dialog box when closing the last menu, which is clearly another bug.

Shift-F7 (Print) works fine.

Ctrl-F7 (Foot/Endnote) has a lot of legacy menu's and looks fine.

Alt-F7 has a lot of legacy menu's. And for making Tables you even get the WP 5.1 prompts "Number of Columns:" and "Number of Rows:", really legacy WP 5.1 style! Math doesn't work like in WP 5.1 in a table made with tabs. It only works in a table and it evokes the formula bar in that case.

Key combinations with F8

F8 (Underline) works fine for switching on and off underline without selection switched on. When F8 is used to underline a selection it does not work, but turns the selection off. Another bug unfortunately. F8 can of course be used as a workaround key to turn a selection off with the keyboard which is not possible otherwise.

Shift-F8 (Format) is really a delight for the WP 5.1 fan. It is only a shame it doesn't evoke a full screen menu but apart from that the menu structure is the one you know from WP 5.1.

Ctrl-F8 (Font) evokes the WP 12 Font menu. That menu is about as efficient as the WP 5.1 menu's but it is not legacy WP 5.1. Ctrl-F8 has unfortunately also a problem, when it is used when a selection is active. When a selection is active you get Page Setup, and not the Font menu window. This is a serious bug and there is more than one workaround, but they are all clumsy.

Alt-F8 (Styles) evokes the WP 12 Styles menu.

Key combinations with F9

F9 (ENDFIELD) works exactly as it should work and inserts the merge code ENDFIELD.

Shift-F9 (Merge) evokes the WP 12 Merge dialog. This dialog is a little bit clearer than the prompts of WP 5.1.

Ctrl-F9 (Merge/Sort) gives the user the choice between Merge and Sort and brings you to Windows menu. The option Convert Old Merge Codes has been added to make the menu familiar but only brings up a pop-up window saying it is an obsolete command which perfectly makes sense.

Key combinations with F10

F10 (Save As), Shift-F10 (Open File), Ctrl-F10 (Record Macro) and Alt-F10 (Play Macro) all evoke the right WP 12 dialog box.

Key combinations with F11

F11 (Reveal Codes) works fine. Shift-F11, Ctrl-F11 and Alt-F11 should have had no function but give Italics, Large and Very Large. Not WP 5.1 but definitely not a problem.

Key combinations with F12

F12 (Selection/Block) has the same problem as Alt-F4 (Selection/Block). See Alt-F4 for more details.

Shift-F12, Ctrl-F12 and Alt-F12 have no effect just as they shouldn't have.

Key combinations with edit keys

Home doesn't work like it should work. In WP 5.1 it is a "prefix" key to tell WP 5.1 how far you want to move. In WP 12 Classic Mode it just works like in WP 12 WordPerfect mode, the ordinary Workspace. This is really a turnoff. It is possible to get in front of any codes with Home and Ctrl-Home. Just press the key(s) twice. In WP 5.1 you'd have to press Home three times for that. It works, but really is not WP 5.1 style.

End of course doesn't work as it should work either. End brings you to the end of the line like in WP 5.1. But Ctrl-End brings you to the end of the text, and doesn't delete the par of the line right to the cursor.

Del really doesn't work like it should work. When a selection is on Del deletes the whole selection without asking "Delete selection?". But worse is that when you would delete a code and just want to go on deleting text only you have to press reply No to each window asking you whether you want to delete that code. In WP 5.1 pressing Del again would be seen as no by WP 5.1. Much more clever.

Ins works the same as in WP 5.1.

PgUp and PgDn are also like in windows. They don't bring you a page up and a page down but a screen up and a screen down.

Other key combinations with Shift, Ctrl and Alt

Shift-<edit key> makes a selection just like in windows. And pressing an edit key deactivates the selection like in windows. The fact you can use the traditional WP 5.1 way to make a selection and use the windows way might seem an advantage, but it is quite confusing because Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V don't work. The weird thing is that Ctrl-X works normally. It was clearly not well thought of how this works. Together with the bug in Ctrl-F4 (Move) this is really clumsy.

A lot of the Ctrl-<letter> combinations have functions assigned to them and some evoke the macro ctrl<letter>.wcm. This is again a weird choice Corel has made. In case you want to make a macro you would have to find out what letters are used and what are not. Moreover in WordPerfect 5.1 most Ctrl-<letter> combinations where unused by most users (you could use them as merge commands but there were easier ways to insert merge commands). What is really a shame is that Ctrl-V doesn't work for combining to characters in a special one. Only a small group of people will miss Ctrl-X for inserting a wild-card character when searching, that stands for one random character.

Display colors

Yet to be written.

Menu bar

Really weird is that there is no WP 5.1 menu bar. It is not that hard to make a menu bar with the WP 5.1 menus and menu options left and at the top, and to add to the bottom and to the right WP 12 menus and menu options. Of course it is not that hard to make it yourself but it should have been included.

Application Bar

The Application Bar could have been better. We have to admit it is not that important and the bottom line of the screen of WP 5.1, the WP 5.1 Application Bar was not perfect. But the way the Application Bar is in the Classic Mode really misses the style of the WP 5.1 Application Bar. That not the full name and path is in the Application Bar seems a wise decision. But the icon for the shadow cursor should have been written in full, as should have other icons have been written in full, to make the Application Bar less distracting by a lot of funny icons.

Speed

If you compare the speed of WP 12 running on an ordinary computer of today with WP 5.1 running on an ordinary computer of its days they are as fast (for example WP 12 Classic mode on a Pentium 3 computer and WP 5.1 on a Intel 486 computer). But if you've ever run WP 5.1 on even a Pentium 1, you will have discovered it has a blinding speed. The Classic Mode offers a lot of the WP 5.1 interface but nothing has been done to speed up menu windows coming up. If it is run on a Pentium 1 it probably is annoyingly slow and it is no match for the incredible speed of WP 5.1 that was completely programmed in assembler. That is why it is so exceedingly fast, and of course it has also a lot less features slowing it down.

Conclusion about the Classic Mode

The conclusion may still change depending on our findings.

The Classic Mode is not at all a bad compromise between the WP 5.1 user interface and the WP 12 user interface. But a lot could be improved without making the user experience for both the more WP 5.1 oriented users as the WP 12 oriented users any worse. For most die hard WP 5.1 lovers the differences between the Classic Mode and the real WP 5.1 in my opinion are just too great. Even by tweaking a lot of settings other than just switching to Classic Mode the difference between the Classic Mode and WP 5.1 are large. There's clearly room for Corel to improve the Classic Mode, although for a group of users it will be a wonderful working Mode.