sum : word processors for linguists summary of question about numbered examples , etc . in word 2 for windows first of all i want to thank all those who showed me how to number examples in word and gave me other advice . secondly , i want to apologize for not mentioning that i was referring to windows programs , and not mac programs . most people who wrote figured that one out , probably from the version numbers . in what follows , my comments are in square brackets . this was the original question : > i am thinking of moving ( " migrating " ? ) from wordperfect 6 to ms word > 6 , which came bundled with my new computer , and would like to know if people > with similar experiences have anything of interest to say about such a move , > such as for example any good references to look into ( that are not too basic ; > the software did n't come with a reference manual , just the online manual ) . > > two specific questions : > > 1 ) numbered examples : wp can set up counters , which is how i dealt with > numbered examples . word does n't seem to have a similar > capability ? could that be possible ? how do people deal with automatic > numbering of examples in word ( as well as cross-references to examples ) ? > > 2 ) file manager : this is something where wp is better than word by a long > shot , but i understand there are add-ons for word out there . has anybody > heard of this ? > > 3 ) search software : while i ' m at it , i just got a message about a software > utility called powersearch , by commtech , which has powerful search mechanisms > and works in word or wordperfect ( there are two versions ) . has anyone had > any experience with this ? ( it is obtainable with ftp ) . windows vs . mac [ there are more than twice as much pcs out there than mac 's , but perhaps among linguists the percentages are more even . i ' m not ready to change though . i am quite happy with pcs thank you very much . ] you do n't say whether you ' re a mac or pc person , but the reviews of word 6 for mac were uniformly enormously negative : they actually ported woindows onto the mac ! since we mac users continually have to escape the really lousy windows imitations of things the mac does gracefully , we can't imaging why they did that ! the macuser review recommended nisuswritier as the word processor of choice now ( and if you are evern going to use alien scripts , there 's no substitute ) ; but you shluld also look at framemaker ( abvailable for lots of platforms , ioncluding windows ) ; it can number an idefinitely large number of different series , cross-refer between chapters that are separate files , etc . it only is n't woldscript - sensitive . ( version 4 . 0 . 4 was sort of , but was buggy , and in the just-released version 5 , they abancdoned it . ) wordperfect vs . word [ the advantage of wp for linguists is definitely the special characters it supports , though the special fonts that come with wp ( which are true type ) will work , i believe , with word , so word users can get a hold of these true type fonts from their wp user friends . ] i am in a similar situation : my new office computer came with microsoft office , which includes word . i toyed with the idea of switching from word perfect , but after a minimal amount of tinkering with word , i have about abandoned the idea . the main reason , for me , is that word perfect comes with a fairly extensive set of special characters , which i use a lot . they include several foreign alphabets , most of the ipa alphabet , characters for logical notation , and so forth . word , as far as i can tell , comes with hardly any of these . so i have about decided to erase office from my hard drive and install what i really use . numbered examples [ word can indeed number examples or anything at all . the terminology is a bit different though , which is why i was confused . in wp you set up counters , but in word you set up sequences . ] [ several people told me that they had gotten this to work , though they did n't all know how they did it . however , after they pointed me in the right direction , i was able to figure it out . ] you set up a counter by using the seq field ( look in your manual under fields ) . fields are somewhat like codes in wordperfect , they have links to things like counters ( chapter number , section , number ) or dates , file names , etc . one of the fields is seq . ( a ) chose : insert / field , click seq , which will give you a seq in the bottom window ; add " ex / n " to the right of the seq code in lower window , press return ( the ex is the name or identifier for the counter , the / n is to increase the number by 1 ) . the first time you do this a 1 will show up , the second a 2 , etc . ( you can set up more than one such counter / sequence by giving each sequence a diferent name an identifier ) ( there are many predefined sequences , e . g . { seq chapter } refers to chapter numbers . ) ( b ) you can create a macro , which then you can assign to a button or a key combination , which does : 1 ) choose a paragraph type you ' ve created which has the right margins , font size , etc . for your example paragraph ; and 2 ) right tab , ( , the stuff in ( a ) above , ) , left tab . ( c ) cross - referencing examples : very easy . first you have to create a bookmark for an example you want to cross-reference : a ) highlight the number created in ( a ) above ( along with the parentheses ) . b ) choose edit / bookmark , give the bookmark a name ( 40 characters ) , e . g . donkey _ sentence c ) when you want to refer to it , you type , e . g . , " as we saw in example " ; then you click insert / cross - reference , click bookmark , click the name of the bookmark , click insert . of course , many of these operations can be simplified with macros . there are many possibilities that i have n't mentioned . for instance , if you want to number the examples in ch . 3 in the format ( 3 . 1 ) , all you have to is before you insert the field for seq , you insert the field for the chapter . ] help on numbering in word 2 came from : numbering examples in dos : you are right , the automatic numbering of examples in word ( . 4 , . 5 & . 6 ) is inexistant which is a problem for linguists since we deal with a lot of examples in our text . if this can be of any interst for you i have found an excellent programm which allows me to do automatic numbering of examples as well as cross-references to examples in the text . the name of the program is renumber 1 . 2 and you can get it by writing to : jonathan mead ; 356 no . spaulding ave . ; los angele , ca ; usa 90036 or by e-mailing jonathan at : izzyt09 @ uclamvs i have been told that the fees for this programm are $ 15 . for student and $ 20 . for non student . [ i have used renumber in the past , and it works well . it is not as convenient as the features in word and wordperfect though . ] powerful searches if you are a mac user and are looking for super-sophisticated searching , try nisus which uses grep conventions and is the best going that i know of . regarding your 's earch ' question , there is a * lot * of stuff available out there , depending on the scope of your intended use . . . . if you ' re just going for personal use on 1 pc , you may want to look at eclipse find , not free , but only $ 99 , last time i looked . ( just my $ 0 . 02 ) . [ powersearch seems to be pretty nice . i downloaded it from simtel ( ftp oak . oakland . edu , cd simtel / win3 / winword ( or cd simtel / win3 / wpwin ) , and get the compressed binary file powersch . zip ( or searchwp . zip ) . unfortunatel this version has the powerful features locked , and to unlock them you have to send in $ 50 , which i have not done . the search possibilities seem pretty impressive . trees huge advantage if you would make use of it is that you can easily draw trees , using the integral drawing program ( from what people say , it sounds better than arboreal ) . i keep a little file of tree-parts . reference books [ i should say that the microsoft office professional cd-rom which came wih my computer does have all the manuals in it . af first , i was n't too excited about these electronic books , but now that i ' ve gotten used to the idea , it 's not so bad . ] books : i have borland 's running word 6 . it is fairly adequate . but it does not explain about styles and templates sufficiently , to my mind ( admittedly somewhat addled ) and it does not have enough information about long documents ( master documents ) . the index is useless , until you already know what you want to find out . the help system is extensive , though again it is sometimes hard to know what to ask it . depending on your learning style , you may be quite handicapped without a real manual , but happily there are commercial versions available at most bookstores " prima visual learning guide for word 6 . 0 " ( prima publishing , po box 1260bk rocklin , ca 95677 ) is an example . on the other hand , it is good to get used to the on-line help , because it 's always there . file managers what do you want to do ? delete files ? view files ? create directories ? windows file manager , while not the best option , offers much of this function , just a mouse click away . also , try word 's find file command ( under the file menu ) i was real happy when i figured out how to do this one : i knew you could look at a file in wp without opening it , but i was not sure how to do this in word : here 's how : from the file menu , choose find file . select the file whose contents you want to view . if you do n't see the file you are looking for , search for it : click on the search button , choose the drive and directory ( s ) you want to look in , make a wildcard filename ( like * . rev ) choose include subdirectories ( if you want to check your whole drive , etc ) , click on ok , and look at the list of files found . to preview the file , select preview in the view box ( still in the find file dialog box . then just click on the filename you want to look at , and you will see the first page on the screen . you can scroll through it to browse , you can delete , copy , open etc . by choosing the commands button . - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - jon aske home address : bates college 12 bardwell st . lewiston , maine 04240 , usa lewiston , maine 04240-6336 e-mail : jaske @ abacus . bates . edu - phone / fax : ( 207 ) 786-0589 - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = -
