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Reading and writing Documents

Writer is able to work with the following types of document:

EasiWriter

Writer reads EasiWriter documents and saves in EasiWriter format. To open a document double-click on its icon. If Writer is already loaded, you can also open a document by dragging its icon onto the Writer icon in the icon bar or you can drag an EasiWriter file into an already open document where it will be inserted at the caret position.

To save a document for the first time, open a window on a directory display where you want to save it, then choose Save from the Main menu and drag the document icon to the window. Subsequent saves can be made by clicking the Save button.

Click the Selection option icon to save a copy of the contents of the current selection to disc. If no selection is made the button will be dimmed.

Word documents

Writer can import Microsoft® Word 6, 7, 8 (Office 97/98) and 9 (Office 2000) documents. Writer can also import text from documents created by earlier versions of Word but all formatting will be lost.

Word files with the type ‘MSWord’ can be opened by double-clicking on them.

Writer will also check files that are dragged into one of its windows or onto the EasiWriter icon on the icon bar. If they appear to be Word documents they will be loaded.

Text files

Text files can be opened by dragging them onto the Writer icon on the icon bar or you can drag a Text file into an already open document where it will be inserted at the caret position.

Choose Text to save just the text of an EasiWriter document. Documents saved in this way will have no information regarding styles, fonts, formats or graphics. Use text to transfer entire documents to other applications that can read text only documents.

Click the Selection option icon to limit the text that is saved to the selection.

Documents saved in this way can be dragged directly into other applications.

RTF

Writer can read RTF (Rich Text Format) documents. It will check any file with an unrecognised file type, and if it starts with the standard RTF header, it will be loaded as an RTF document.

1st Word Plus

Text can be extracted from 1st Word Plus documents in the same way as Text files. Formatting information and graphics will be lost.

HTML

Writer can read HTML files (HyperText Markup Language).

Note: HTML is not a page description language; it is one column of continuous text with optional links to graphics. The page proportions and line breaks depend on the size of the monitor or window in which the page is viewed. If an HTML file is loaded into Writer it is formatted to fit within the page margins, which is likely to be different from how the same document is displayed by an HTML browser.

Note: Some HTML tables may be longer than a page. Writer will truncate them. To see the entire table you may need to alter the size of the paper you are using. (Use Printer control on the Printer icon)

CSV files

CSV (Comma Separated Value) files are automatically converted into Tables when dragged into an Writer document. If dragged onto the Writer icon on the icon bar a new document is created containing a table.

For example if you had a CSV file containing:

,"Perrier","Moët","Theakstons"

"Normal","61","11","11"

"Inebriated","18","52","20"

"Paralytic","6","10","55"

"Comatose","0","9","31"

When dragged into Writer it will automatically be converted to a table and will look like:

Perrier Moët Theakstons
Normal 61 11 11
Inebriated 18 52 20
Paralytic 6 10 55
Comatose 0 9 31

This is not really part of the design of Writer but is there as a result of the EasiWriter code. There is however a ‘Gotcha’. Because table creation is not really included in Writer there is no way tell it you want to end the table and start a new paragraph after it. The trick is to create an empty paragraph or two (press return) and insert the CSV file above the last paragraph.

Here is the same table formatted using EasiWriter’s Borders command:


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