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Barry MacDonnell's
Toolbox for WordPerfect

Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
© Copyright 1996-2023 by Barry MacDonnell. All Rights Reserved.

 Page updated Mar 6, 2023

DELETERC - Deletes empty rows and (optionally) columns from a table

Download DELETERC.ZIP (v2.0; 11/08/12; 17,354 bytes)

Written and tested in WPX6 but should be compatible with WordPerfect 8 and later versions

WordPerfect 11 users: See important information about using macros in the first release of WP11 (11.0.0.233) at the top of this page.

Downloading, Documentation, Modifications, and Support

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Related items -

RowLines - Adds underlines and/or fills (shading) to every Nth row in a table for added readability or improved appearance

Using WordPerfect tables (some tips) 

 Purpose
The DeleteRC.wcm macro ("Delete empty Rows and/or Columns") in the download ZIP archive (see left sidebar) can - 
  • delete all empty rows in the current table -- i.e., those rows without any visible (keyboard) characters in any cell in the row.

    -or- 

  • delete all rows that have empty cells in Column 1 -- even if they might have visible characters in other cells in the row. 

    -or-

  • delete just empty columns -- which retains any empty (or partially empty) rows.

    Optionally, it can delete all empty columns (choice #3) immediately following the processing of all table rows (i.e., after choosing either #1 or #2 above).

    Optionally, it can retain the first column even if its cells are empty. (Some users might want the column available as a "check off" column.)

Menu screen shot.

Notes and tips

¤  Some items are ignored: Cells with just regular spaces (spacebar), format codes (bold, italics, styles, outline numbers, etc.), and images ([Box] codes) are not considered "text" during processing. Therefore, cells that contain only these items will be seen as empty during processing.

¤  WordPerfect symbols (Insert, Symbol... or Ctrl+w), on the other hand, will be seen as text and their cells will be considered filled.

¤  Menu defaults can be set in the redlined User Modification Area at the top of the macro code.

☼  If you need to select everything in a cell -- codes as well as text or other material -- so that you can delete all items, see Footnote 1.

Caution: Always make a backup of your document before playing this (or any) macro, or play it on a copy of your document. While you might be able to use Edit, Undo (or Ctrl+z) to restore all changes to the table (depending on your Undo options), it is always a good idea to have a backup just in case. [Disclaimer]
Footnote 1
(Probably of interest mainly to macro writers:)

If you want to select the entire contents of a particular CELL -- including all format codes, even those left behind be other operations -- here's a Procedure that should do the job. (Tip: To select the contents of a particular row, see the second snippet of code.)
Basically the procedure selects any text and codes from the very top of the cell to the very end of the last line EXCEPT Row or Cell or Table terminators. The selection will include any [Hidden Txt] code -- and therefore the hidden text -- as well as any format codes that lie outside the cell's text character strings (e.g., [BoldOn]textstring[BoldOff]).
Most of the code came from the DeleteRC macro; the blue lines were added to capture any format codes at the top of the cell. The two WP51CursorMovement() commands (in green) ensure the code works even if Reveal Codes is turned off. The addition of the call to the procedure you see on the line just above the procedure itself (i.e., pSelectTableCellContents ()) is to prevent an error message if -- for some reason -- your main macro does not call the procedure (i.e., it's an "orphaned" code snippet).

(The original code of this macro was also posted at WordPerfect Universe here.)
// Select the current cell's contents:
 pSelectTableCellContents ()
// ... do other stuff here, such as delete the contents with SelectDelete ...
// Place this segment at the end of the macro:
pSelectTableCellContents ()
 Procedure pSelectTableCellContents ()
 // Selects the entire contents of the current table cell:
 If(NOT ?TableInTable) // Test cursor position
     Messagebox(;"Error in macro Procedure";"Not in a table cell")
    Quit
Endif
 WP51CursorMovement(On!)
 PosTableCellTop  // Go before any items in cell -
 While(?LeftCode>0 and ?LeftCode<>{195;196;197;198})
     PosCharPrevious // (moves before any codes except [Row], [Cell] etc.)
 Endwhile
 SelectMode(On!) // Turn select mode on -
 PosTableCellBottom // Go to the bottom of the cell -
 PosLineEnd // Go to the end of any line of text 
While(?RightCode>0 and ?RightCode<>{189;191;192;195;196;197;198})
     PosCharNext
 Endwhile
 WP51CursorMovement(Off!)
 EndProcedure

[Update:] To select the contents of a particular ROW -

// Select the current row's contents:
pSelectTableCellContentsInCurrentRow ()

 // ... do other stuff here, such as delete the contents with SelectDelete ...

pSelectTableCellContentsInCurrentRow ()
Procedure pSelectTableCellContentsInCurrentRow ()
// Selects the entire contents of the current table row:
If(NOT ?TableInTable) // Test cursor position
    Messagebox(;"Error in macro Procedure";"Not in a table cell")
    Quit
Endif
WP51CursorMovement(On!)
PosTableCellTop  // Go before any items in cell -
While(?LeftCode>0 and ?LeftCode<>{195;196;197;198})
    PosCharPrevious // (moves before any codes except [Row], [Cell] etc.)
Endwhile
SelectMode(On!) // Turn select mode on -
PosTableRowEnd  // Extend selection to end of row -
PosTableCellBottom // Go to the bottom of the last cell -
PosLineEnd // Go to the end of any line of text 
While(?RightCode>0 and ?RightCode<>{189;191;192;195;196;197;198})
    PosCharNext
Endwhile
WP51CursorMovement(Off!)
EndProcedure