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Toolbox for WordPerfect

Macros, tips, and templates for Corel® WordPerfect® for Windows®
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Page updated June 6, 2008

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Using older WordPerfect Template Projects in newer versions of WordPerfect

Do you have the original release of WordPerfect 11 (i.e., version 11.0.0.233 as shown in Help>About WordPerfect)? See here for specific issues.

Sometimes Corel stops including certain Projects (i.e., automated templates) in later versions of WordPerfect that were included in earlier ones.

Sometimes the same-named Project doesn't work like it should (e.g., the Memo Project in WP 13.0.0.406 doesn't work properly).

Solution: You might be able to use an earlier Project in a later version of WordPerfect.

NOTE: Some may still be available for downloading. For example, you can download the English versions of WordPerfect 10 Template Projects from Corel's FTP site. Please follow the instruction below to make them available in a later version of WordPerfect.

IMPORTANT:

This method has worked for a number of users and in a number of versions of WordPerfect. There is no guarantee it will always work under all circumstances -- particularly if a Project uses the address book or some other feature that has changed in some way. Therefore, the method includes a simple means of backing up two important files.

First, you should know that WordPerfect Projects -- accessed via File, New from Project (or File, New in WP8) -- are really just automated templates. However, unlike the automation you can add to a custom template in the form of prompts or a template macro (see "Automating WordPerfect Templates" on the main Tips page), the automation part of a Corel Project is encoded in a special, separate disk file that has the same filename as the template but a different filename extension.

For example, the Memo Project is really composed of two files, Memo.ast (the automation part) and Memo.wpt (the template part).

The "ast" appears to stand for "assistant," and this file seems to be responsible for popping up the PerfectExpert pane on the left side of the document screen, as well as including -- in some Projects -- certain codes ([Named Region]) that perform automated tasks related to the PerfectExpert options in the left pane.

To function properly, the .ast file requires a certain pair of .dll files, uawpNNen.ast and uawpNNen.dll, where "NN" is the WordPerfect version number (e.g., 11, 13, etc.). This is important in understanding the procedure below.

[The following is modeled after a general procedure that was first published by Charles Rossiter, Corel C_Tech, on a Corel newsgroup.]

Let's assume you want to use the Memo Project from WordPerfect 11 in WordPerfect X3 (i.e., version 13, hereafter referred to as WPOX3). The method assumes that both WordPerfect 11 and WPOX3 are currently installed -- or at least, that you have access to the two WP11 Memo.* files.

Background

When you create a Memo Project in WordPerfect 11, the pane on the left side of the screen that appears when the Memo loads is the PerfectExpert, and is displayed by the Memo.ast file when you load Memo.wpt. It requires a certain version-specific pair of files, uawp11en.dll and uawp11en.ast. If you want to use WP11's Memo Project in WPOX3, you'll need to "trick" WPOX3 into using renamed versions of these two files -- renamed to what they were named in WP11.

In other words, for all Projects, WordPerfect requires these two files to be the same internally as when they were originally coded by Corel for the currently loaded version -- WPOX3, in this case.

However -- and here's the trick -- the names of these two program files can be different from the installed versions because the two (older) WP11 Memo files (in this example) will "call" on them by name if you load the WP11 version of Memo.wpt in WP X3. (Obviously, if you use several WP11 Projects in WP X3, each of them will also call on these two renamed files.) WPOX3, on the other hand, "sees" them as WPOX3 program files, not as WP11 program files, so everything usually works as expected.

Procedure

Here's the step-by-step procedure to set up and use the WordPerfect 11 Memo Project so that it works in WPOX3. A similar method can be used for other Projects from earlier versions but, again, there is no guarantee they will work. Still, since the relevant files are backed up, this should not be a problem since you can restore things to their original state.

1. Close WPOX3 if it is open. Use Windows Explorer (Start>Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer) to locate and select the WPOX3 "..\Template" folder. (On many systems it is D:\Corel\WordPerfect Office X3\Languages\EN\Template.)

2. Locate and rename these two Project files -

Memo.ast to Memo.ast-BAK
and
Memo.wpt to Memo.wpt-BAK.

(This will back them up, just in case.)

3. Go to the WP11 template folder (e.g., D:\Corel\WordPerfect Office 11\Template) and copy the WP11 versions of these two Project files into the WPOX3 ..\Templates folder.

You should now have four Memo Project files in the WPOX3 ..\Template folder:

Memo.ast
Memo.ast-BAK
Memo.wpt
Memo.wpt-BAK

The -BAK files are the WPOX3 files. (They don't seem to work in the first release of WPOX3, which is why this particular Project is being used here as an example.)

4. Locate uawp13en.dll and uawp13en.ast in the WPOX3 ..\Template folder; copy them to a temporary folder (e.g., C:\Temp if it exists) and rename them to -

uawp11en.dll
uawp11en.ast

5. Move the renamed copies back into the WPOX3 ..\Template folder, alongside their WPOX3 counterparts, so that the WPOX3 ..\Template folder now has these files in it:

uawp11en.ast (the new, renamed WPOX3 file)
uawp11en.dll (the new, renamed WPOX3 file)
uawp13en.ast (the original, untouched WPOX3 file)
uawp13en.dll (the original, untouched WPOX3 file)

6. Open WPOX3 and use File, New from Project to select and Create the automated Memo document. It should load, and the PerfectExpert pane should work to modify the Memo.

If you follow the above procedure, you should not have to "refresh" the Project.usr file, since the two Memo files copied from WP11 have the same names as the WPOX3 originals. However, if they do not show up, search for Projects.Usr and delete it. It will be re-created when you next load WordPerfect.

An alternative to the above Memo Project is to use a Memo macro. See here.


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