 | Supercharging your WordPerfect® keyboard
By Stephen E. Harris
There are a number of DOS diehards around who say "forget the graphical interface," and guard their WordPerfect® 5.1 floppies as the crown jewels of their software collection. Many of these folks are speed demons who long ago memorized the function key operations described in those mysterious templates affixed to their keyboards.
If this sounds a bit retro in these days of gee-whiz graphics and flattened learning curves, think again. These folks know that the WordPerfect keyboard, not your mouse, is the quickest vehicle to document completion—and that a little time mastering its keys and fine-tuning their operations can yield enormous productivity returns.
So grab on to your keyboard and let's give it a whirl. First, we'll look at the shortcut keys, then we'll see how to turn your keyboard into a custom hot-rod. This article concludes with some practical examples.
A souped-up typewriter
The computer keyboard, shown in the figure below, has evolved quite a way from its typewriting ancestor.
Let's take a look at each of the features you'll normally find:
The numeric keypad, found on most full-sized keyboards, is handy for performing calculations and entering numbers (when NUM LOCK is on)
Function keys are the pre-mouse standard for performing specific program operations. The best-known function key is F1, for Help
SHIFT enables all keys, including the function keys, to perform two operations
CTRL and ALT enable the other keys to do multiple functions, just as the SHIFT key does. When used in combination with SHIFT, these keys provide more possibilities than you'd care to remember. ALT + characters open menus. CTRL turns character keys into easy-to-remember function keys, such as CTRL+B to insert a bullet
Arrow keys enable you to move around the screen quickly. Like most other keys, they repeat when you hold them down
Special-purpose keys: INSERT, DELETE, HOME, END, PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN are special-purpose keys. They can be especially handy when used in conjunction with other keys (such as CTRL, ALT and the Arrow keys)
ESC provides a quick way out of dialog boxes, menus and other places
Keyboard Definitions
Various WordPerfect functions can be assigned to particular keys or key combinations. A set of key assignments constitutes a keyboard definition.
Most versions of WordPerfect come with a special Equation Editor™ keyboard (for the non-graphical equation editor) and two types of standard keyboard definitions:
WPWin Keyboards use the standard Windows key assignments. The HOME key, for example, takes you to the beginning of a line, while the END key takes you to the end. Print is F5. CTRL+F4 closes a document window. ALT+F4 exits the application
WPDOS 6.1 keyboard with the traditional assignments for those who cut their teeth on a DOS version of WordPerfect. F12 selects text, instead of F8. Print is SHIFT+F7. F7 closes a document
What, no Linux® keyboard?
If you're using WordPerfect 9 for Linux®, you'll notice that there's no Linux keyboard among your selections. A minor oversight, perhaps, but it does mean that various keystrokes on your WordPerfect keyboard are pre-empted by graphical desktop operations, notably these keystrokes in KDE:
CTRL+F1 through Ctrl+F8 take you to virtual desktops 1-8
CTRL+TAB takes you to the next virtual desktop
ALT+TAB switches to the next application
ALT+F1 through Alt+F3 perform various Linux functions
ALT+CTRL+Fx and ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+Fx (where Fx is any function key) result in a new login. (If you use them, press ALT+CTRL+F7 to return to your Linux desktop.)
Chances are this isn't a problem, but in case you want to use any of these WordPerfect keystrokes, you could disable or reassign the corresponding desktop keystrokes, via the Control Center. You can also assign conflicting WordPerfect keystrokes to other keys, as described in the sections to follow.
Click on the links below to view the standard DOS and Windows keystrokes:
Ctrl+Alpha keystrokes perform easy-to-remember shortcut key combinations.
Ctrl+Shift+Alpha keystrokes perform various secondary shortcuts.
Navigational keystrokes move the insertion point to various locations.
Insertion keystrokes insert various formatting codes in your text.
Deletion keystrokes delete selections, characters, words, and lines.
Function Keys create handy shortcuts to various WordPerfect operations.
Creating your own keyboard
Now we get to the fun part—creating a custom keyboard. It's also where you really get to personalize the power of WordPerfect. You customize a keyboard by assigning any of the following to various keystrokes:
Features lets you assign almost anything you can select from a menu or a dialog
Keystrokes lets you automatically execute a sequence of keys
Programs lets you execute another application, such as a calculator or dictionary
Macros executes a pre-recorded or programmed set of instructions
Among these possibilities, I've found the Features and Macros assignments to be the most useful.
Although you can customize a default keyboard as received from the "factory," it makes more sense to make a customized copy, as shown here.
To create a custom keyboard:
Click Tools, Settings, Customize, then click Keyboards tab
Click Copy and then select the keyboard you want to create a custom copy of, as shown below
If you're copying a keyboard within the same template (the normal procedure), you'll be asked to give the copy a new name, as shown
Customizing your keystrokes
Now that you've created a personal copy of one of the keyboards, let's move on to customize its keystrokes.
Click Tools, Settings, Customize, then click the Keyboards tab
Select the keyboard you want to customize and then click Edit
You're now in the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor, as shown here:
Highlight the key you want to change by scrolling the list or pressing the keystrokes and then do any of the following:
Click the Features tab to select a feature from any of the categories and then click Assign Feature to Key
Click the Keystrokes tab to type the keystrokes you want the shortcut key to play and then click Assign Keystrokes to Key. Keyboard scripts are unformatted, although you can use curly brackets for function and formatting keys, such as {ALT+F7} or {TAB}Sincerely yours
Click the Programs tab, click the Assign Program to Key, select an executable file (".exe," ".com," ".bat," or ".pif" in Windows), and then click Open.
Click the Macros tab, click Assign Macro (or Template Macro) to Key, select the macro you want to run and then click Select
Click Remove Assignment to remove the assignment from the selected keystroke
To display the keystroke feature on the corresponding menu item, check "Shortcut key appears on menu"
Instead of assigning a macro to a keystroke, you can name a macro for a CTRL or CTRL+SHIFT keystroke so that you can play it no matter what keyboard you use.
You can map plain keys (not in combination with CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT) by checking "Allow assignment of character keys." However, if you assign Date Text to the letter "d," for example, you will no longer be able to type the letter "d"! That's __umb.
Note: When you add a macro to your keyboard, you'll be asked if you want to save the macro with its full path. If you click Yes, the program first looks in that folder to find the macro. If it doesn't find it there, it then looks in your default macro folder and, finally, in your supplemental macro folder. If you click No, the program looks only in your default and supplemental macro folders.
Real-world examples
We now come to the practical examples of customizing a keyboard I promised at the beginning of the article. What actually prompted this article was a previous one on the QwkScreen® macros, that can be downloaded and assigned to particular keystrokes, such as the enhanced move (CTRL+M), copy (CTRL+C) and delete (CTRL+D and CTRL+PAGE DOWN) functions. Likewise, the two-sided printing macro can be assigned to CTRL+2, while the footnote/endnote dialog can be assigned to CTRL+N.
Another interesting example arose from my article Speed Writing with WordPerfect, where I noted how awkward it is to nullify a QuickCorrect™ replacement, such as to undo the change from an "i" to and "I." A reader from the Netherlands suggested a macro workaround, resulting in our QCUndo macro to reverse a QuickCorrect action, leaving your original entry, followed by your space, tab, or hard return. Rather than search for the macro each time we assigned it to the Alt+Z keystroke, for a handy QuickCorrect Undo right next to the to the normal Ctrl+Z undo. If you already started typing the next word or two, press Ctrl+Z followed by Alt+Z.
If you also use the QuickCorrect "Correct other mis-typed words" feature, like I do, edit the macro to remove the // comment indicators at the start of lines 10 & 13.
A more personal example comes from my long-standing preference for the DOS function key assignments, such as F7 for Close and F3 to switch among my WordPerfect documents. On the other hand, I find the DOS CTRL+ALPHA keystrokes to be less useful and intuitive than the Windows one. For example, the DOS CTRL+P inserts the page number instead of printing my document and CTRL+S inserts a sound clip instead of saving my document. I found that by copying the DOS keyboard, then modifying the CTRL+ALPHA keystrokes, I could have the best of both the DOS and Windows keyboard worlds.
In conclusion
I'm sure you will come up with many more examples of how customizing your keyboard can crank up your word processing power. Please e-mail me at steveh@qwkscreen.com if you do, or if you have any other suggestions or criticisms. Let's give the good old keyboard its due!
Steve Harris is the author of the best-selling WordPerfect for Linux and
WordPerfect Office 2000 Bibles. Steve lives in the woods of western
Massachusetts with his wife Githa, two cats (Becky and Chester), bears,
deer, turkeys and other assorted wildlife. You'll find Steve, plus more
WordPerfect solutions and links at www.qwkscreen.com
Disclaimer: The information provided on OfficeCommunity.com is not legal advice, but is intended to be general information. Articles reflect the opinion of the author and do not imply sponsorship, endorsement or approval by Corel Corporation.
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