On Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Brian Barker <b.m.bar...@btinternet.com>wrote:
> At 11:10 20/01/2013 -0500, Helen Etters wrote: > >> On Sun, 20 Jan 2013 07:42:46 -0800 (PST), Eric Fenster wrote: >> >>> What chance Open Office will offer "reveal codes" à la Word Perfect? >>> >>> This is the reason I keep my old Word Perfect program, as crash-prone as >>> it is. The feature really helps control formatting. >>> >> >> I'm with Eric on this one. I've pined for that Word Perfect feature for >> many years. I doubt we'll ever get it, but I wish I still had a copy of >> Word Perfect. The styles feature doesn't replace WP's ability to find and >> delete a single troubling code. >> > > The only reason you can have a single troubling code is that the program > is faulty. Wouldn't it be more sensible to correct the program so that > this couldn't occur? The reason why Word Perfect could have single > troubling codes is precisely because users were allowed to tinker with them > and introduce mistakes. > > My 2¢, I've run across some troubling documents with formatting that seemed impossible to manage. (Could post sample if its desirable). In those few rare cases much frustration and time could have been saved with a reveal codes feature. In the situations I experienced no amount of un/formatting copy paste of desired text or application of styles would eliminate a border that seemed to be associated with a paragraph but wouldn't be eliminated. The "final solution" was rewrite and reformat a third of the document in a new document and copy paste the 2/3 of the document not affected by the format bug into the new document. My recollection of Wordperfect history is reveal codes was a workaround added to allow users to correct format bugs that early versions of the program had. Certainly AOO has some of its own format bugs. Perhaps its better to give users the ability to correct bugs by tinkering directly with the formatting codes then to make them wait for bug fixes.
