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Enable Word Processing Converter Capabilities and LimitationsArticle ID: 121000 - View products that this article applies to. This article was previously published under Q121000 On This PageSUMMARY
The table below provides a summary of features which are supported for
export and import between Enable word processing documents and Microsoft
Word. These features are supported by both the 16 and 32-bit versions of
the converter, designed for use with Word 6.x and Word 7.0 respectively.
For more details about conversion limitations mentioned in this summary,
see the Import of Enable to Word and Export of Word to Enable sections that
follow the table.
Features are organized by type formatting: character, paragraph, section, document, and other. "Yes" means the feature exists in both products and is converted from one product to the other. "No" means the feature is not converted from one product to the other either because of limitations or that feature does not exist in the destination product. "N/S" means the feature is not supported in the source product and therefore not converted.
ENABLE WORD
FORMATTING TO TO
FEATURE WORD ENABLE
========== ====== ======
Character Formatting
--------------------
All Caps N/S. Converted to normal text in
all capital letters.
Bold Yes. Yes.
Colors N/S. No.
Condense/ N/S. No.
Expand
Extended Yes. (See "Extended Yes. (See "Extended
Characters Characters" under "Import Characters" under "Export of
of Enable into Word" for Word to Enable" for more
information.) information.)
Fonts Yes. Limited since Window's
printer drivers usually are
more complete than those used
in Enable. Font changes in
Word due to style changes are
not exported. Also, font
changes in multiple columns
are not exported to Enable
3.0 or 4.0. (See "Fonts and
Rulers" under "Export of Word
to Enable" for more
information.)
Hidden N/S. Converted to Enable comment.
Italic Yes. Yes.
Kerning N/S. No.
Language N/S. No.
Small Caps N/S. Converted to normal text in
all capital letters.
Strikethrough/ Yes (converted to dashes). Yes, except for strikethrough
Overstrike contained in multiple
columns.
Superscript/ S/S only. (Enable doesn't Raised/Lowered is converted
Subscript - support Raised/Lowered) to S/S. Also, the underline
Raised/Lowered is removed from underlined
superscript or subscript.
Underline Yes. Yes, with the exception of
underline on a word-by-word
basis.
Paragraph Properties
--------------------
Alignment Yes. (See "Text Flow and Yes
Text Alignment" under
"Import of Enable into Word"
for more information.)
Borders/ N/S. No.
Shading
Bullets/ N/S. Converted to text items.
Numbering
Hyphenation Yes, with exception of Yes.
hyphenation zones within
an Enable document.
Indents Yes. Yes.
Keep Lines Yes. Yes.
Together
Keep with Next Yes. Yes.
Line Spacing Yes. (Only the last line Limited. "Before" and "after"
space setting in an Enable spacing for paragraphs is not
paragraph is imported.) exported. Also, proportional
fonts may format improperly
when exported to Enable 3.0
or 4.0. (See "Line Spacing"
under "Export of Word to
Enable" for more
information.)
Page Breaks Yes. Yes.
Rulers Yes. Yes. (See "Rulers" in "Export
of Word to Enable" for some
limitations.)
Styles N/S. No.
Tabs Yes. (Some alignment tabs Yes, except tab leaders.
may be adjusted to (Some alignment tabs may be
accommodate product adjusted to accommodate
differences.) product differences.)
Widow/Orphan Yes. Yes.
Control
Section Properties
------------------
Columns Yes. Yes. (Gutter widths less than
.2" are set to .2".) (See
"Columns" under "Export of
Word to Enable" and see
"Converter Options" for more
information.)
Document Title Converted to standard text N/S.
followed by a page break
at beginning of document.
Endnotes N/S. Converted to Enable
footnotes.
Footnotes Yes. (Long footnotes may Yes. (Long footnotes may be
be formatted differently.) formatted differently.) (See
(See "Footnotes" under "Footnotes" under "Export of
"Import of Enable into Word to Enable" concerning
Word" concerning footnotes nonnumeric footnotes.)
at the end of a document.)
Headers/ Yes. Yes.
Footers
Line Numbering Yes. Yes.
Vertical N/S. No.
Alignment
Document Properties
-------------------
Margins Yes. Yes.
Orientation Yes. Yes, except for orientation
changes within a document.
Paper size Yes. Yes.
Other Features
--------------
Annotations - N/S. No.
Text
Draw/ N/S. No.
Paint Frames
Drawing Layer N/S. No.
Fields/ Yes, with exception of Page, Date, Time, TC, XE,
Embedded printer "percent" commands. and Includetext fields are
Commands converted to equivalent
Page, Date, Time, embedded
command. All other fields are
converted to text.
Frames N/S. No.
Graphics No. No.
Index Yes. Yes.
Master N/S. No.
Documents
OLE Objects N/S. No.
Outlines Converted to Word's The display and printing will
bullets/numbering appear different. (See
(including blank lines in "Outlines" under "Export of
Enable outline.) (See Word to Enable" for more
"Outlines" under "Import information.)
of Enable into Word" for
more information.)
Revision N/S. Latest version of revisions
Marking converted to static text.
Tables To tabbed text. To side-by-side columns in
Enable 4.5; to a single
column in Enable 3.0 and 4.0.
Tables in headers, footers,
and footnotes are not
converted. (See "Tables"
under "Export of Word to
Enable" and "Converter
Options" for more
information.)
TOA Converted to comments; References are not converted,
spade reference marks are and the compiled TOA will
discarded. appear as standard text.
TOC Yes. (See "TOC" under Yes. (See "TOC" under "Export
"Import of Enable into of Word to Enable" for more
Word" for more information.) information.)
IMPORT OF ENABLE INTO WORDIn general, Enable word processing documents can be imported to Word with minimal impact on the document and its formatting features. Modifications that you should anticipate, as well as the few conversion limitations that do exist, are discussed in the feature summary that follows.Bold
See Character Attributes.
Character Attributes
All character attributes such as bold, italic, superscript, subscript,
and underline are imported as expected.
Columns
Enable's snaking and side-by-side columns are imported as expected.
Document Titles
Enable's Document Title will appear on the first page as standard text
followed by a page break when imported to Word.
Embedded Commands (%Commands)
Enable's %ALT is converted to Word's different odd and even header and
footer feature.
Extended Characters
Enable's %LNUM is converted to Word's line numbering feature. The following %commands are converted to the following Word field codes:
Enable Word
%Command Field Code
-------- ----------
%DATE DATE
%NUMDATE DATE
%TIME TIME
%INCLUDE INCLUDETEXTAll printer-related "%commands" are ignored during import.
Enable special characters are supported in Word through the Symbol
function found on the Insert menu. During conversion, all special
characters are transferred to the closest matching character in either
the Symbol or MS LineDraw fonts supported by this Symbol function. A
point size is assigned to each according to the size set in the Enable
document.
Fonts
When an Enable document is imported, character type face, point size and
attribute (for example, bold and italic) are mapped based on the default
Windows printer.
Footnotes
Enable has an option that allows a single footnote to be continued at
the bottom of the following page. Word does not process the text of long
footnotes in the same way. As a result, an imported Enable document with
a footnote that continues from one page to another is formatted
differently.
Graphics
The Enable option to save footnotes at the end of a document results in footnotes being printed on a separate page. When imported into Word, the footnotes will begin where the text of the document ends.
The conversion utility does not import pictures and graphs contained
within an Enable document.
Hyphenation
See "Rulers."
Indents
See "Text Flow and Text Alignment."
Indexes
Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for indexes.
In Enable, index terms can be created in two ways. One method is to
insert an index special entry by selecting TOOLS, INDEX, INSERT and
keying the index term into the "special" area. The second approach is to
apply the Enable index attribute to the characters of the index term.
This is done in a way similar to applying an italic or bold attribute to
text. The first method does not show the index term in the body of the
printed document, the second does.
Italics
When Enable compiles the index, it creates a new document containing only the compiled index. This index document is a standard Enable file and is generally given an extension of WPI. In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command at the start of the original document to cause the index document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the index document into the original document. Unlike Enable, Word does not create a separate document when the index is compiled. In Word, the user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the index to be created and inserted into the original document. Each %INCLUDE filename command in an Enable document is converted into a field in the Word document, specifically the INCLUDE TEXT field. As a result, the Enable-generated index document is printed by Word as expected. Also, if the index document was interwindow-copied into the original document, it displays and prints as expected. During the conversion process, an XE field is inserted into the Word document for all index entries found in the Enable document. These can readily be used by Word to compile a new index.
See "Character Attributes."
Line Numbering
Occasionally with an imported Enable document, line numbering does not
appear when printed or displayed in page preview in Word. This can occur
because of differences in ruler structure between Word and Enable. The
problem can be corrected by moving the left margin in Word to the right
using the Page Setup command.
Line Spacing
Because Word allows only one line-space setting per paragraph, only the
last line-space setting used in a paragraph in Enable is retained.
Outlines
Enable's outlines (including any blank lines within the outline) are
imported as Word's bullets/numbering.
Overstrike
Enable's overstrike attribute are converted to dashes.
Passwords
Password-protected Enable files are not imported into Word. Remove the
password in Enable first, and then import into Word.
Rulers
Word supports a single hyphenation zone that applies to an entire
document. Enable permits the hyphenation zone to be reset with each
ruler. Due to this difference, only the last hyphenation zone set within
an Enable document is used to set the hyphenation zone in Word.
Superscript/Subscript
Alignment tabs consisting of several characters on an Enable ruler can be adjusted to accommodate implementation differences between Word and Enable. For example, if you have typed N's (for numeric tabs), or carets(^) (for centering), or X's (for alphanumerics) on an Enable ruler and the length of the item being aligned is greater than the number of alignment characters, then when imported into Word, the item adjusts to the left of where it aligned in Enable.
See "Character Attributes."
Table of Authorities
All Table of Authority entries are converted to Word's comments and the
spade reference marks are discarded.
Table of Contents
Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for table of
contents (TOC). In Enable, a TOC entry is created by inserting a
"special" TOC entry. This entry contains the TOC term plus codes that
determine the level and the numbering to appear to the left of the term
when Enable compiles the TOC and creates a new document containing the
text of the TOC. This TOC document is a standard Enable WP file and is
generally given an extension of .WPT.
Tables
In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command in the beginning of the original document to cause the TOC document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the TOC document into the original document. In Word, TOC entries are generally created by applying a style to the entry. Word has a number of built-in styles for this purpose. The style applied to the entry determines its level (in the compiled table), the indenting, and other formatting needs. Alternatively, a Word user can insert a special field type (TC) for creating TOC entries. Unlike Enable, Word does not create a separate document when the TOC is compiled. The Word user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the table to be created and inserted in the original document. Each %INCLUDE filename command in an Enable document is converted to an "Include Text" field. As a result, the Enable-generated TOC document is printed by Word as expected. Also, if the table was interwindow-copied into the original document, it displays and prints as expected. During the import, an XE field is inserted into the Word document for each TOC entry found in the Enable document. The text of the TOC entry is included within the body of the Word document. These XE fields can readily be used by Word to compile a new table. The level assigned to the TOC entry is forwarded during the conversion process. However, Enable and Word have different methods of compiling and offer different features for providing any optional numbering to appear to the left of the term. These are product specific and not part of the conversion process. Word has many more options for formatting the TOC than does Enable.
Enable's tables, which are tabbed text, are imported into Word as tabbed
text.
Tabs
See "Rulers."
Text Flow and Text Alignment
Enable does not flow text through its "special" text areas, such as
comment text. When an Enable document is imported into Word, the text
above and below any "specials" will appear as part of one paragraph.
Underline
Hanging indents in Enable that begin in the middle of a paragraph are preserved going to Word, but the indented portion acts like a separate paragraph. Centered and flushed right text is implemented in Enable 3.0/4.0 by inserting blanks before the text. These blanks are preserved during import. The text may not appear to be centered or flush right if the font is changed or if Word reformats the lines.
See "Character Attributes."
EXPORT OF WORD TO ENABLEThe export of Word documents into Enable 3.0, 4.0, and 4.5 format has conversion limitations due to differences in environment and product features. Enable operates in a non-graphical, text-based environment and Word operates in a graphical environment. Although text is not lost, in some cases the formatting information cannot be exported. As a result, the format of the document when opened in Enable may appear quite different. The conversion utility does not export the following Word features:
All Caps
See "Character Attributes."
Bold
See "Character Attributes."
Bullets/Numbering
Word's bullets/numbering is exported to Enable's outline.
Character Attributes
All character attributes such as bold, italic, superscript, subscript,
and underline are exported as expected with two exceptions. Enable
cannot underline any subscript or superscript text. If this combination
is used in Word, superscript takes precedence when the file is
exported to Enable. Also, underline that is applied on a word-by-word
basis is not exported. See "Fonts" for related information.
Columns
Word's raised/lowered functionality is converted to Enable's superscript/subscript. Word's small caps and all caps are converted to normal Enable text with capital letters. Any strikethrough in multiple columns is ignored.
Word's variable-width columns are exported as Enable's side-by-side
columns in 4.5. For Enable 3.0 and 4.0, they are exported as single
columns. For a method of exporting variable-width columns to
Enable 4.0, see "Converter Options."
Endnotes
Word's fixed-width columns are exported as Enable's snaking columns. If the gutter width is less than .2 inch, the gutter width is set to Enable's minimum value of .2 inch. (In some cases, this may result in columns being shifted off the edge of the page.) Any font changes in multiple columns are ignored for export to Enable 3.0 or 4.0. Line numbering changes in multiple columns are ignored. Any strikethrough in multiple columns is ignored.
Endnotes created in Word are exported to Enable as footnotes.
Extended Characters
Special characters (Word's Symbols) that are in the value range 240-255
of the DOS codepage are not exported. Those in the ranges of 0-15 and
127-239 are exported on a "best match" basis for the MS LineDraw font
only. Characters that do not have an equivalent in the DOS codepage (for
example, Wingdings) cannot be exported successfully.
Fields
Word's PAGE, DATE, TIME, INCLUDETEXT, TC, and XE fields are exported to
the equivalent Enable feature. For all other Word fields, the text last
associated with the field is displayed as standard text. All date fields
display in month name, numeric day, and year format.
Fonts
The marked differences in font and printer support that exist between
the text-based Enable versions and the Windows-based graphics-oriented
Word are likely to have a significant impact on the printed appearance
of a document that has been exported from Word to Enable. Among these
differences are:
All non-numeric footnote references (which appear as a superscript text
to the right of the reference text) are included in the export. However,
Enable's sequential numeric values are inserted into the non-numeric
references.
Frames and Associated Text
Enable has a feature that allows a single footnote to be continued at the bottom of the following page. Word does not process the text of long footnotes in the same way. As a result, an exported Word document with a long footnote is formatted a little differently. In an Enable-created document, all footnotes are saved at the top of the document. However, in an exported Word document, instead of saving the footnotes at the top of the document, footnotes are saved as they are encountered within the Word document. This does not cause any problems when opening the exported document in Enable. However, such files should either be printed from within Enable word processing or be resaved in Enable before they are printed from the main menu in Enable.
In Word, text can be entered into a frame, which can be positioned and
sized by the user. Since Enable does not have a corresponding feature,
text within a Word frame may appear at unexpected positions on the page
when the exported document is opened in Enable. Since graphics are not
exported, the frame box is not included in the exported document.
Headers and Footers
If a header or footer is present in the Word document, the distance
between the header/footer and the first/last line of text is set to .33
inch.
Hidden Text
Hidden text in Word is exported as an Enable Comment.
Indexes
Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for indexes.
In Enable, index terms can be created in two ways. One method is to
insert a "Index Special" entry by selecting TOOLS, INDEX, INSERT and
keying the index term into the "special" area. The second approach is to
apply Enable's index attribute to the characters of the index term. This
is done in a way similar to applying an italic or bold attribute to
text. The first method does not show the index term in the body of the
printed document; the second does.
Italics
When Enable compiles the index, it creates a new document containing just the text of the compiled index. The index document is a standard Enable file and is generally given an extension of .WPI. During the export process, Enable does not automatically compile the index entries in the Word document and create a second Enable document containing the index information. All index terms in a Word document are exported to Enable's "Index Special" entry. These do not have Enable's "index character attribute" applied to the index term(s). However, the exported document includes the compiled indexes as standard text.
See "Character Attributes."
Line Spacing
Word has the capability to separate paragraphs by a specified number of
points. Since Enable does not have this feature, such information is
omitted in the export. As a result, any exported Word document
containing spacing before and/or after paragraphs has different line
spacing than the original, which may also affect pagination when the
document is opened in Enable.
Orientation
The 3.0 and 4.0 versions of Enable used the fixed number of positions on the ruler between the left and right margins to determine where lines should break. This behavior produces significant variations in text format, especially where proportional fonts have been exported from Word. Additionally, the use of large fonts on a line exported to these versions may produce overlap to previously printed lines. This is due to the fixed vertical spacing used in Enable 3.0 and 4.0. Use the %LINES command, change line spacing, or insert one or more blank lines above the overlapping line to correct such anomalies before printing.
See "Page Setup."
Outlines
Enable and Word handle construction and formatting of text outlines in
very different ways. Word treats each outline level with an implied
hanging indentation. Enable does not. When outline text is exported, no
text is lost, but the display and printing of the data will appear
different than in the original Word document.
Page Breaks
Due to the differences in the way Word and Enable support fonts, the
exported Word document is often paginated differently in Enable.
The degree of difference varies, based on the level of support Enable
provides for the default Window's printer. See "Fonts" for related
information.
Page Setup
The following information is not included in the exported document:
See "Character Attributes."
Rulers
Exported documents may contain extra rulers. This is due to the
different way Enable and Word handle text flow such as hanging indents.
Small Caps
Alignment tabs (such as centering, decimal, and right) are adjusted to accommodate implementation differences between Word and Enable. The ruler in Enable 3.0/4.0 indicates the maximum number of characters allowed on a line, not the maximum width of the characters in inches. The export converts Word's margins based upon 10 cpi. Whenever a proportional font or a fixed pitch font that is not 10 cpi is in use in the Word document, the corresponding area of the exported Enable document may require adjustment to the ruler.
See "Character Attributes."
Strikethrough
Strikethrough characters in Word are converted to the overstrike
attribute in Enable. Strikethrough characters in multiple columns are
ignored for all exports.
Superscript/Subscript
See "Character Attributes."
Table of Authorities
table of authorities (TOA) references are not converted. The compiled
TOA from Word will appear in the Enable document as standard text.
Table of Contents
Enable and Word provide similar but different functionality for table of
contents (TOC). In Enable, TOC entries are created by inserting a
"special" TOC entry. This entry contains the TOC term plus codes that
determine the level and the numbering to appear to the left of the term
when Enable compiles the TOC and creates a new document containing the
text of the TOC. This TOC document is a standard Enable WP file and is
generally given an extension of .WPT.
Tables
In most cases, the Enable user places an %INCLUDE filename command at the start of the original document to cause the TOC document to be printed. In other cases, the user may use the interwindow-copy function to copy the contents of the TOC document into the original document. In Word, TOC entries are generally created by applying a style to the entry. Word has a number of built-in styles for this purpose. The style applied to the entry determines its level (in the compiled table), the indenting, and other formatting needs. Alternatively, a Word user can insert a field type (TC) for TOC entries and a field type (TOC) for where the compiled table will appear in the document. Unlike Enable, Word does not created a separate document when the TOC is compiled. The Word user selects one of the INSERT options to cause the table to be created and inserted in the original document. Only Word's TC fields are exported as table of contents entries. Text containing one of the Heading styles is not automatically treated as TOC entries. All level information is retained in the exported document. No TOC style information is exported.
Word's tables are exported to Enable 4.5 as side-by-side columns. As
this feature is not available in Enable 3.0, the tables are exported to
a single column in that version. The default for export to Enable 4.0 is
also a single column; however, see "Converter Options" for a method to
convert tables to side-by-side columns in Enable 4.0.
Tabs
Tables defined in headers, footers, and footnotes are not converted to side-by-side columns. Rather, a single space is inserted between the cells, maintaining the text in a row.
See "Rulers."
Text Flow
Since Enable 3.0 does not have the capability to reformat the entire
document with one command, files exported from Word to Enable 3.0 need
to be reformatted manually. This is most quickly accomplished by going
to each ruler within the document and pressing ALT/F6 and ENTER.
Underline
See "Character Attributes."
MEMORY CONSIDERATIONSIn some cases, when Enable processes large documents that have been exported from Word, the user may encounter Enable's "Short of Memory" message. If this occurs, the user may attempt to avoid the memory restriction according to the following guidelines:If the memory shortage occurs while attempting to print the document:
PropertiesArticle ID: 121000 - Last Review: August 16, 2005 - Revision: 1.1 APPLIES TO
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