TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re[2]: Word wrap/text file solution From:bkane -at- ARTISOFT -dot- COM Date:Tue, 18 Feb 1997 11:00:34 MTN
Hello,
Re: the messages below -- I found a solution to the word wrap problem
for the readme.txt files that I provide to engineering, which are
destined to be viewed by users in Notepad or DOS EDIT or the like. You
_DON'T_ have to hit Enter at the end of every line!
1. Open your text file from Microsoft Word. (You can run spellcheck
while you're there.)
2. Highlight all text (Ctrl+A) then set the right margin (by dragging
the doohickey on the ruler) exactly where you'll need it to be for
the format in which the users will be viewing this text. For Win
95-compatible software, it will open in Notepad, but I don't
remember offhand exactly how many characters wide the default
Notepad window is. About 5" or 5 1/2" should do the trick.
3. Now do a Save As -- save the file as MS-DOS Text with Layout (*.asc).
Now, when you open this doc in Notepad or even in DOS EDIT, the margin
is exactly where you set it.
Once this file has been saved as *.asc, you can rename it and give it a
.txt extension if you like. The formatting will be preserved.
Please let me know if this doesn't work for you. It's been working
consistently for me.
Thx,
Beth
bkane -at- artisoft -dot- com
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Word wrap in Notepad
Author: dski -at- CAMEONET -dot- CAMEO -dot- COM -dot- TW at Internet
Date: 2/17/97 9:39 PM
Lesley van Beek (lesley -at- quantime -dot- co -dot- uk) wrote --
> I've written a readme.txt file which will be distributed on CD. The
> problem is that when I view the file, it does not automatically fit the
> Notepad window. If I turn on Word Wrap, it all fits fine - but next time
> I view the file, word wrap is no longer on.
>
> Now I realize that Notepad is for viewing unformatted text, but when I
> open other readme files, they appear formatted to my window.
If you provide unwrapped text, you are obliged to provide an auto-
wrapping reader. It is better to wrap your own text, however, and
that is done with the overgrown key misleadingly labeled Enter on
many keyboards. That key produces a code known among the cognoscenti
as Carriage Return.
Dan Strychalski
dski -at- cameonet -dot- cameo -dot- com -dot- tw
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html