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Barry MacDonnell's
Toolbox for WordPerfect

Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2024 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

Page updated Sep 9, 2020

Need help creating macros or templates?

Macro: "...a saved sequence of commands or keyboard strokes that can be
stored and then recalled with a single command or keyboard stroke."
Template: "...a form, mold, or pattern used as a guide to making something."
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Whatis.com
Macros
Templates
General resources and tips -

•  Don't forget WordPerfect's Help menu:

▸ On the Help menu use the Help Topics choice. Under the Search tab, search for your topic of interest, then click the "List Topics" button.

▸ On the Help menu, use the Reference Center. For more on macros, use the Macros link on the left side of that dialog.

•  Recording a basic WordPerfect macro - a basic, short (2:25) YouTube video tutorial (uploaded by a Corel employee in 2009).

•  See these examples on WordPerfect Universe:

Basic Macro Creation Recording Example by Bob Walker

Record a macro from the keyboard by Noal Mellott

•  Automate your current session tasks with a QuickMacro on this site. (Note that this is a temporary, per-session macro.)

•  Creating a Signature Block Macro - a Corel Tutorial to "...show you how to create a signature block and then set up a macro to automatically insert the signature. You'll also learn how to edit macros and how to assign them to a keystroke or toolbar button for quick access."

•  See Seth Katz's WordPerfect Macro Tutorial (c.1999 - Table of Contents, archived by the Internet Archives's WaybackMachine). See also the article's Introduction here. Based on WordPerfect version 8 but most information should still be valid. Target audience: Beginning level macro writing.

•  How to access macros to quickly play them when needed. There are 5 general methods:

▸ Assign the macro to a shortcut key (a.k.a. "hot key") that will then play the macro

▸ Give the macro a special "Control-key" name so you can use the <Ctrl> key (or <Shift+Ctrl> key) plus a letter or number to play them

▸ Add a toolbar button to a toolbar to play the macro with a mouse click

▸ Add the macro to the WordPerfect menu or sub-menu

▸ Play the macro directly from your disk with Tools, Macro, Play

•  Easy ways to play your macros - Links to pages on this site about customizing WordPerfect's toolbars, keyboard, and/or menu to play macros (and do other things); includes step-by-step tutorials and many tips.

•  WordPerfect Universe - See the Macros & Merges forum. WPU is a good place to "lurk and learn." If you join, which is free, you can ask both basic and advanced questions. You can see more threads by choosing a selection in the field "Showing threads...".

•  Have you seen plain-text macro code (i.e., not functioning macros such as those in the Toolbox Library) posted on the Internet (from a reliable source, of course!) -- and you want to use that macro in your own WordPerfect program? See "How to copy plain-text macro code from the Internet (i.e., web page, newsgroup post, or e-mail) into WordPerfect to create a functioning macro" here.


Intermediate to Advanced level -

•  First, be sure to add a Macros Help selection to your WordPerfect Help menu (if it is not already there).

For example, in WP9+, right-click the top menu or toolbar, then click Settings..., then the Menus tab in the Customize Settings window. Select the appropriate menu (such as <WordPerfect 9 Menu>), then click on Edit.

In the next window, in the Menu Editor's Features tab, select Help in the "Feature categories" list.

Next, select Macros... in the features window, then click Add Menu Item.

Optional: With the Menu Editor window still open, put the cursor over the new menu item, hold down the left-mouse key and drag it leftward and then downward into the Help menu.

• 
Corel WordPerfect Office X6 Macro Guide (May 2012) - a downloadable PDF on OfficeCommunity.com (Media tab).

There are two related downloadable files on that site:
(1) A spreadsheet that summarizes the changes to WordPerfect macro commands since version 8; and
(2) a spreadsheet that summarizes the changes to PerfectScript macro commands since version 8.

•  See Doug Loudenback's "A Common Person's Macro Manual" on the Other Authors page - an excellent (and free) reference for macro writers composed of a dozen PDF files.

•  You can learn many basic WP macro techniques and error-trapping methods by examining the macros others have written.

My own macros (see the main WPToolbox Library page here) are heavily annotated to explain what is happening at almost every step of the macro's execution. You'll find menus, search and replace functions, loop techniques, and many other "snippets" of code you can use in your own work.

Moreover I generally don't use the more complicated routines if I can avoid them (e.g., callbacks or complex arrays), unless they are self-contained in a snippet that could be pasted into other macros (such as my "Please Wait ..." messages). I'm not a programmer by trade, so in the early days I looked for simple ways of doing something without using macro commands I didn't fully understand or that didn't work they way they were supposed to work. (I continued the practice whenever possible.)


All user levels -

•  First, here's an important point about WordPerfect templates (from "Automating WordPerfect Templates"):

"In WordPerfect, a template is a document on your disk with a special filename extension, ".wpt," where the "t" stands for "template". Think of it as a stencil or model that you can use to make (or "spawn") copies of the original ...

Like other word processors, every document you create in WordPerfect is based on a template. Even new, empty documents with names like Document1 are based on a special template, called the default template ...

Templates—whether default or custom—define formatting and program options for a document such as margins, tab settings, styles, menus, toolbars, and keyboard definitions...."


•  WordPerfect includes many templates: See the File, New from Project menu choice, which contains many automated templates. In newer WordPerfect versions (WPX8+) there is also a File menu choice, New from Template, which contains many non-automated templates you can modify to your needs.

• 
To create your own custom templates see Custom templates in the WPToolbox. (Also see Corel's YouTube video here.)

•  To find, modify, or fix the program's default template -- which spawns all new documents such as the one you see when the program opens -- see The default template.


Intermediate to Advanced level -

•  To automate templates with prompts, etc., see "Automating WordPerfect Templates" on the Tips page at http://wptoolbox.com/tips.html#AutoWPT

•  Many WordPerfect 10 templates and Projects (both are English versions) can be downloaded from Corel's FTP site and serve as models for your own templates. They can be downloaded individually or as a batch using the ZIP file at the bottom of the site's page.

You may be able to use these templates in later versions of WordPerfect. For example, one WP12 user asked Charles Rossiter (Corel C_Tech) how to do this with the WP10 calendar project. [Be sure to substitute your current version number (e.g., 11, 13, etc.) where you see "12" in the items below.]

Here's Charles's reply on 8/25/04:

"You can use [these Projects] in WPWin12. Two steps are needed.

1. The WPWin10 projects require two additional files to be created in the WPWin12 template folder: uawp10en.dll and uawp10en.ast. These files MUST be copies of uawp12en.dll and uawp12en.ast -- NOT the versions from the WPWin10 template folder.

2. Copy the WPWin10 template files (*.wpt and *.ast) to the WPWin12 template folder. Then search for file Projects.Usr for WPWin12, and delete it.

Now when you next launch WPWin12 and do File, New from Project, the catalogue file Projects.Usr will be re-created and you will have access to the WPWin10 templates and Perfect Experts."