Re: Change how Word formats a .txt file

Graham,

Wow! Thank you for the macro solution - with your help I was able to
get Word to format the .TXT file the way I wanted it upon opening.
With the macro in place I could use my conversion tool to create TIFF
files from all my mainframe text files.

Thanks again so much. You're a life saver.
Sheri.


Graham Mayor wrote:
I have had a look at the document you sent me. There is nothing amiss with
that and if you open it in Word, provided there is enough space between the
margins it will wrap correctly. I have posted a macro solution to you that
will do just that.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

geekgrrl wrote:
Graham,

Thanks for the reply.

When I display the formatting characters, the paragraph mark is at the
end of the line, not where Word wraps the text, so I don't think it is
the mainframe output.

The text file is 134 chars wide with paragraph markers at the end of
each line where I want them. If I load the .txt file, change my Plain
Text style to Courier 8pt and default my page setup to be Letter
Landscape with T/L/R/B margins of 0.5", my mainframe page displays
correctly. I save my style change, and make my current page setup the
default, and close Word. If I open the same file again by
double-clicking on it,or throught File-Open the margins are
automatically adjusted to 2.83" L/R and the file is wrapped.

I can send you the file to look at. I'll send it from your website.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Sheri


Graham Mayor wrote:
This is not normal behaviour. Word will wrap the text to the current
margins. If the wrap is fixed at 80 characters then there is a hard
return at 80 characters. You can establish this by pressing SHIFT+*
to display the formatting characters.There will only be a paragraph
mark at the end of each true line. If there are more paragraph marks
then you should check your mainframe output as it appears to be
wrapping at 80 characters.

If you want to send me one of your documents to check, then do so to
the link on my web site.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

geekgrrl wrote:
Terry,

Thanks for the answer. Normally Word does wrap my text for me. The
problem here seems to be how Word treats plain text (unformatted)
files. Whenever I open a plain text file Word wants to wrap it at
80 characters, no matter what my page layout is. My text file is
actually 134 characters wide as it comes from mainframe. You could
duplicatate this by creating a text file in notepad that is greater
than 80 characters wide and seeing what happens when you
double-click to open that txt file in Word. My file does have the
extension .txt and not .doc.

Thanks again,
Sheri

Terry Farrell wrote:
That seems weird and not my experience with Word. Word should wrap
your text automatically: there should be no need to mess around
with margins, orientation or fonts. Are you sure that you haven't
enabled the Wrap to Windows option?

--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

"geekgrrl" <geekgrrl71@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1167768596.825201.261140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

I am trying to open a .txt file in Word. The .txt file was
created on a mainframe and can be up to 134 characters wide. Is
there no way that I can get this document to display properly
upon opening?

If I open the document, change the font used for Plain Text style
to be Courier New 8 point instead of Courier New 10 point, and
change the page layout to Letter Landscape, my mainframe txt file
fits on the page.

I can change (and have changed) the Plain Text style to always be
Courier New 8 point, and change my Normal.dot to have all my
documents automatically open in Letter Landscape with 1" margins.
This does not work when I open a .txt file using Word. It formats
the plain text as if it was letter portrait and places it smack in
the middle of my Letter Landscape page (basically increasing the
L/R margins from 1" to
2.17")

Is there a way to change how Word opens and formats a .txt file?
Without having to run extra macros and whatnot? I have a tool
that creates TIFF files by automating the opening and printing
txt files using Word to a special virtual printer, and if I can
get Word to open the .txt file in the format/layout I need then I
can use my tool to automatically convert my (many) txt files to
the TIFF files I need.

Thanks,
Sheri

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Change how Word formats a .txt file
    ... When I display the formatting characters, the paragraph mark is at the ... Normally Word does wrap my text for me. ... Is there a way to change how Word opens and formats a .txt file? ...
    (microsoft.public.word.newusers)
  • Re: Document not opening though Word is
    ... WordPad can read RTF, but you said that you lost some formatting that way. ... I guess you got lucky, or perhaps there's some particular formatting that Word isn't handling correctly -- when writing, reading, or both. ... It should prompt you to indicate the file type. ... > All produce the same result (Word opens, ...
    (microsoft.public.word.application.errors)
  • Re: Change how Word formats a .txt file
    ... When I display the formatting characters, the paragraph mark is at the ... If I load the .txt file, change my Plain ... Is there a way to change how Word opens and formats a .txt file? ... creates TIFF files by automating the opening and printing txt files ...
    (microsoft.public.word.newusers)
  • Re: use of Word for mac 2004
    ... Since the content of an Index tag does not print, ... Word simply starts at the top of the file and piles characters one after the ... You may also specify space above and below each paragraph if you wish. ... Then remove your direct formatting and apply the ...
    (microsoft.public.mac.office.word)
  • Re: Cross reference book marks are changing format, why is this ha
    ... characters originally selected. ... Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org ... >>>> fields but the formatting is not correct. ... Ex) Mr. Mike Jones PHD is the form field text. ...
    (microsoft.public.word.docmanagement)
Loading