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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 4, 2024

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Navigating quickly to your favorite folders, files and templates from inside WordPerfect —

plus tips on navigating inside a long complex document for both author and reader




There are several ways to speed up your access to favorite folders  (directories), files, and templates from inside WordPerfect — as well as to navigate while editing or viewing a long or complex document (for both author and reader).

☼  Set the default folder where your documents will be saved [...more]

☼  For the current WordPerfect session (only) you can force WordPerfect to remember the last folder accessed [...more]

☼  Add a folder to the Open File dialog list with a standard Windows shortcut [...more]

☼  Add a specific folder or file to any visible toolbar [...more]

☼  Add a new subfolder directly under the standard Favorites folder [...more]

☼  Create a vertical toolbar with text labels (instead of graphic icons) [...more]

☼  Quickly open commonly used files [...more]

☼  To navigate between several open documents you can use standard shortcuts or "document tabs" [...more]

☼  Navigating inside a long or complex document (with shortcut keys, the Document Map, scrollbar buttons, QuickMarks, etc.)  [...more]


•  Set the default folder where your documents will be saved (unless you choose another folder for a specific document) with Tools, Settings, Files, Document tab, then specify the folder in "Default document folder." (Be sure to re-launch WordPerfect for the change to take effect.)

This folder will then be the one that displays when you first use File, Open/Save/Save As (or use Insert, File) during the session. 

•  For the current WordPerfect session (only) you can force WordPerfect to remember the last folder accessed by clicking on File, Open. Then on the Open File dialog's menu, click on Edit and enable (i.e., tick) "Change Default Folder".

[Note: If you do not see a menu at the top of the Open File dialog, click the menu-like icon (screen shot) on the extreme right-hand side of the Open File dialog, just above the vertical scroll bar. (To see this "Toggle Menu On/Off" icon you must be using the "enhanced file dialogs" option in Tools, Settings, Files, Document tab.)]

☼  For the next WordPerfect session, the first folder that will be opened is the one set in Tools, Settings, Files, "Default document folder".

☼  This tip also applies to the the separate QuickFinder Searcher. This utility can usually be found in the Windows menu (Start, All Programs, WordPerfect Office X..., Utilities). Also,
in QuickFinder Searcher the setting "Change Default Folder" is independent of the same-named setting in WordPerfect's File, Open dialog. Moreover it retains the last folder as the "default" -- even across Windows sessions -- until you choose another folder.

☼  Related QuickFinder Searcher tip: In newer Windows versions you can choose to pin QuickFinder Searcher on the Windows taskbar to make it faster/easier to use -- even if WordPerfect is not open.

•  Add a folder to the Open File dialog list with a standard Windows shortcut.

In a similar way to adding shortcuts to your Windows desktop, you can simply open File Explorer (or Windows Explorer or My Computer in some versions) and right-click on the desired folder. Then drag the folder name to the WordPerfect default folder (see first tip above), and choose "Create Shortcut Here". When you open the Open File dialog the shortcut should appear in the list of folders and files; just double click on it to open the folder that it points to.

Tip: Rename the shortcut with a leading "!" mark and it should appear at the top of the list of files when the Name column is chosen for sorting.


•  Add a specific folder or file to any visible toolbar.

Open Windows Explorer [from the keyboard you can press and hold the Windows key (the key with a Windows icon on it) and simultaneously press the E key], or use (My) Computer. Drag and drop the folder or file name from Windows onto the WordPerfect toolbar.

☼  You can customize the folder or file name and the Quick tip (the label that appears when you hover over the toolbar button): Right-click on the toolbar and choose Edit. The Toolbar Editor appears (you can drag it to reposition it). Then right-click on the button an choose Customize. Give the icon a Button Text name of your choice,and a Quick tip name of your choice. Click OK until you return to the main screen.

☼  You can customize the button's icon: In the Toolbar Editor, click on the Image Edit button, then click Clear to remove the default image. Then use the tools to create your own custom icon. (Or you can simply edit the existing icon to add something or some color to make it unique. For the artistically challenged, here are some tips to make the button unique.) Click OK until you return to the main screen.

☼  See also the vertical toolbar tip below.

•  Add a new subfolder
directly under the standard Favorites folder in Windows and name it "WordPerfect". Any Windows shortcuts to often-used folders that you create in that new subfolder will show up in the Favorites menu in the File, Open and the Insert, File dialogs. 

For example -

In Windows XP it would be something like C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites\WordPerfect, where "Administrator" could be your own User Name on your system.

In Windows Vista and Windows 7 it could be something like C:\Users\Name\Favorites\WordPerfect, where "Name" could be your own User Name on your system.

•  Create a
vertical toolbar with text labels (instead of graphic icons) to quickly access your favorite folders, files, and templates. [Screen shot here.] See "How to Create a Vertical Toolbar with Text Buttons to Access Your Favorite Folders, Templates and Files," a small PDF file on this site.

Related tips -

☼  You can use any toolbar, not just a vertical toolbar, for this purpose: Just drag the folder's icon from Windows Explorer onto the toolbar. You can also create a mnemonic shortcut key by editing the folder button's icon or text label so you don't need to use a mouse to use that button (though you can if you wish).

☼  You don't need to use a toolbar: You can use a macro like the one below to force the File, Open dialog to go to a specific drive and folder. Play the macro from a menu, keyboard, or toolbar (see here for instructions).

The macro should contain code like this example (change the FileChangeDir() code to use your own desired path and filename; the command should be on just one line in the macro):

OnCancel(Exit@)

FileChangeDir("C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Clients")

FileOpenDlg
Label(Exit@)
Return

[For a more robust macro that allows you to select favorite folders, see Klaus Pfeiffer's Quick Folder Selector macro.]

•  Quickly open commonly used files:

☼  [New in WordPerfect X7 and later versions:] A factory-shipped macro, Favorites Launcher.wcm (also accessible as a toolbar choice on the main WordPerfect toolbar as a yellow star button) lets you add files to a Favorites list and open those documents, individually or in groups. You can also manage your Favorites list with that feature. See WordPerfect's Help: "Working with favorite files".

Tip: You can add the Favorites Launcher feature directly to any available toolbar, shortcut key, or menu choice (see here for various methods). It is located under Tools, Settings, Customize, Edit (button), in the Feature category, "File".

☼  Here's an old, "low tech" method posted on the Corel newsgroups: Create a single document that contains hypertext links to other files on your computer. Simply select some text or a graphic in that document (e.g., a description of a previously saved document) and then click Tools, Hyperlink to create a link to it. (You can browse to select a particular document by clicking the Browse Folder icon adjacent to the Document/Macro name field in the Hyperlink Properties dialog.)

For more on creating and using hyperlinks see here.

Tip: For easier access to this "master" file, create a button on a toolbar (e.g., see the vertical toolbar section above) to open it; then navigate back to that open document whenever you need to select a particular listed document to open during that session.

To navigate between several open documents you can use standard shortcuts (Ctrl+F6 and Ctrl+Shift+F6 to move to the Next Open Document and the Previous Open Document [DOS keyboard equivalents: F3 and Shift+F3]).

Alternatives -

  WordPerfect already has clickable "document tabs" of a sort, at the very bottom of the window in the Application Bar (a/k/a status bar). These show all open documents and let you quickly navigate between them with a mouse click.

In case you don't see any of these tabs: With a WordPerfect menu active (right-click on the menu bar and choose <WordPerfect Menu>) then (in WordPerfect 9 and later) click on View, Application Bar to display it. (If you use a Microsoft Word menu, you can then re-enable it the same way.)

In case you don't see some of these tabs: In WPX6+ if you have enabled Tools, Settings, Files, "Outside WordPerfect, open documents in new application window," then open an existing file in Windows Explorer (or other file manager), you will not see the other tabs because they are in separate instances (separate windows) of WordPerfect.

  You can also use your keyboard to shift back and forth between open documents: see this PDF file that contains a table of keyboard shortcuts.

  You could also use a macro such as one of the ones described in this thread on WordPerfect Universe.


•  Navigating inside a long or complex document (for both author and reader)

Section A.  Some navigation aids when EDITING the document

[Related tip: Long, multi-part documents (e.g., a manuscript) might be easier to deal with during editing if the parts are composed on individual "subdocument" files on disk and then linked together into a single, "master" document. See here for some tips.]

 
There are various keyboard shortcuts you can use when in WordPerfect.

See WP_shortcut_keys.pdf (a PDF file). Note that this file does not list every possible keyboard shortcut built into WordPerfect. Moreover, users can assign their own features, functions, and macros to keyboard shortcuts.

  Starting with WordPerfect 11, you can use the Document Map (on the View menu when using a <WordPerfect menu>).

This depends on whether you have used WordPerfect's built-in heading styles and/or you have created a table of contents, a table of authorities, an index, or a list with Tools, Reference. These items have internal code markers that the program can recognize.

  You can also navigate to various pages and/or specific items (tables, footnotes, bookmarks, redline text, etc.) with the small buttons at the bottom of the vertical scroll bar.

Navigation buttons on scroll bar
The second button from the top has an icon on it representing the item (e.g., Page); left-click on it to select the item you want to navigate to. then use the first and third buttons to go to the previous or next item. [The fourth button can be used to quickly show/hide Reveal Codes; using Reveal Codes can help tell you precisely where the cursor is located.]

  You can set a temporary QuickMark (a special type of bookmark) at the current location and return to it later. It's temporary because if another QuickMark is set, the first one is deleted.

To access this feature:
Use Tools, Bookmark (it's found on a <WordPerfect Menu>; see here if you can't find this menu choice). There are two buttons there to set and find a QuickMark.
    -or-
Use a shortcut key to set the QuickMark (Ctrl+Shift+Q, or with the DOS keyboard, Ctrl+Q) and another shortcut to find it (Ctrl+Q, or with the DOS keyboard, Ctrl+F).
[Tip: You can reassign the QuickMark Set and QuickMark Find features: See here for help (these two features are located under the Insert feature category in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog as well as in the toolbar and menu Editors).]
    -or-
You can also automatically set a QuickMark at the cursor location when you save the document. Open the Tools, Bookmark dialog. There's a checkbox at the bottom of the dialog, Set QuickMark on save. You can then find the QuickMark later in any of 3 ways:

- Click the "Find QuickMark" button on that dialog;
    -or-
- use the shortcut key (above);
    -or-

- have WordPerfect instantly go to that QuickMark when you open the document by enabling the checkbox, Go to QuickMark on file open.

When you use QuickMarks there are some things to bear in mind:

There can only be one QuickMark in a document: If you (or the program) create another one it will replace the existing one.

 Unless you deliberately delete a QuickMark that you (or the program) added, it will be saved with the document.

The two optional QuickMark settings in the Tools, Bookmark dialog will be retained between WordPerfect sessions and apply to any saved document you open in the future that has a QuickMark in it. If you forgot that you previously enabled Go to QuickMark on file open you might unexpectedly jump to a different part of the newly opened document rather than start at the top (the normal program default).

[Arcane problem:] Setting a QuickMark with Tools, Bookmark and enabling the option "Go to QuickMark on open" will work when saving an ordinary document but will not work when saving a template that has a QuickMark embedded in it. See the footnote on the automated Letterhead template page here for a solution.

Section B.  Some structuring and formatting aids to help readers navigate the PRINTED document

•  Some of these links are to general "How To" pages on this site, while others cover more specific, narrow topics. Many pages contain additional links to related topics (for a more comprehensive listing of tips see here).

•  Be sure to also consult WordPerfect Help menu (F1 key) and use the Search option in Help Topcs. Also see the Reference Center on that menu.

•  Also consider joining (or just visit) the free WordPerfect Universe site where you can search for information, suggestions and solutions. Members can also post a question in one of several topical forums.

Table of Contents

WordPerfect Lists

Indexing

Cross-references - (see WordPerfect Help menu's F1 key and search for "cross references" or "working with cross references")

Bookmarks and hyperlinks - (see WordPerfect Help menu; also search this site by topic)

Tabs and indents

Page numbering (several links to other pages on this site)

Line spacing (double spacing and other spacing topics)

Headers and Footers (and Watermarks)

Footnotes and Endnotes (formatting and other tips)

Bullets, auto-numbered items, and other outline styles 

Table of Authorities, Glossary, Bibliography - (see WordPerfect Help menu; also see links in the sidebar on the above Table of Contents page)




Other resources -

See Roy "lemoto" Lewis's post on WordPerfect Universe for more WordPerfect methods.