• Legal secretary

• "Dedicated legal word processor" (This was my job title; I later found out it was a type of machine. Go figure.
  I took dedicated literally -- I thought it meant you stayed until the document was complete. Pulled lots of all-nighters.)

• Training and support specialist

• 2d level help desk lead

• Project lead, conversion from WordPerfect to Word

• Macro and template developer

• Training and support specialist

The best job? Training & Support. Why? Because of the insights absent from all other roles. It's where I continuously learn: "What we teach is not always what people understand."

1982-1985: Word processor: Wang

1985-1992: Word processor: Barrister; WordPerfect

1992-1994: Trainer: WordPerfect 

1994-1999:  Lead Trainer, Macro Developer, Help Desk Lead: WordPerfect 

1999-2001: Lead Project Assistant: WordPerfect to Word Conversion Project

1995-2001: I used and supported WordPerfect and Word. I switched to using Word almost exclusively in 2001. 

I was on the WordPerfect to Word conversion team for a law firm with a library of over 20 million documents. The team obtained input from end-users, Document Services, trainers, senior help desk staff, and the conversion project leads from US and international offices. We examined every option in Word and made deliberate choices about the features to turn on or turn off. When we didn't know (or couldn't find out) about what an option did, we generally left it as the default. 

I have followed that practice ever since and make adjustments as Microsoft makes changes to Word. Sometimes, options that might seem like a  great idea can spell disaster. As I add to this website, I'll include stories about what happened, the consequences and lessons learned. 

Word has changed and added many features since I was on that conversion team.  When possible, we use macros to fix what we don't like. When we can't fix it, we run a class called "The Gotchas." I teach the procedures I learned from my years as a "dedicated word processor." 

I rely heavily on what I learned from experts such as the Microsoft MVPs (including, but not limited to)  Shauna Kelly, Greg Maxey, Paul ("Macropod") Edsen, Lene Fredborg, Graham Mayor, Susan Barnhill, Stefan Blom, John McGhie and Dave Rado; and vendors such as Sherry Kappel, Kate Evert, Teresa Morris, and Judye Carter Releford. 

There is one vendor I would never recommend. Senior level IT members at one firm spent four hours reviewing with this person the options in the Microsoft OCT - Office Customization Tool. He knew nothing about Word styles, paragraph numbering or document corruption issues. His firm specialized in law office consulting.

"Make Word Behave" is a prayer -- not a promise.  

Like many others, I was a WordPerfect fan. I still own over 70 books about WordPerfect and can name 10 great features without mentioning Reveal Codes.  I know who wrote the shipping macros (Gordon McComb) and I have read the history at least three times (Almost Perfect: How a Bunch of Regular Guys Built WordPerfect Corporation, by Pete Peterson). There was a time in my life when if it didn't have anything to do with WordPerfect, I didn't want to know about it. For several years I visited the CompuServe WordPerfect groups 24/7-365.  I couldn't get enough.

Learning Word did not represent a huge challenge for me. I prefer to seek out information from established resources. Lunchtimes were spent in places such as Kroch's & Brentano's, Books A Million (brick and mortar bookstores). I didn't turn new books into used books by reading them in the store. After I examined the book, I bought it, took it home and observed the mantra: RTFM. I did so, cover to cover.

In the mid-90's I could see the writing on the wall. The Training & Support departments were fielding more questions about conversion issues and document corruption. Too many believed the promise that it was "easy" to convert from WordPerfect to Word and back. We were egregiously misinformed: "round-tripping," as the practice came to be known, turned out to be a disaster. The firm, like many others even today, tried to be a "dual shop," supporting both WordPerfect and Word, but that was impossible without well-trained, talented word processing personnel supporting all sides . That was almost never the case. Some of our clients (many were multi-billion dollar corporations) were so lacking in training that they often tried to "convert" documents by renaming the extension.  This was in 1995. I still see people doing that today.

Microsoft Word became ubiquitous and many legal professionals in management figured that since they "look similar" both products could be used pretty much the same way.  We didn't need the help of Murray's polygraph to determine "that was a lie." We saw evidence daily.

After the legal profession decided to switch to Word (it was critical that we deliver to clients documents they could use) I watched as law firms spent millions of dollars in document conversion, training and add-ons designed to "make Word behave" like WordPerfect.  For a while, they were fairly successful, as long as end users used the tools they were provided. In the last decade or so, I've seen add-in use drop precipitously with a corresponding drop in  the technical quality and stability of documents.

During the early days of the transition, there was an option in Word to make the screen display the famous "WordPerfect blue" and also simulate its keyboard shortcuts. That too was a disaster. You can't turn a Tiger into a Lion, even with a good wig and makeup. You end up with a Liger. Neither Tiger nor Lion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger  Some might call it interesting. Others, an abomination.

WordPerfect diehard fans still exist. I neither hate nor love either product. I used to "love" WordPerfect, but if the creators walked away, what do we look like trying to hold onto something that "was"?  As Les Brown teaches us: "'Used-to-be's don't make no honey."

WordPerfect passed through a couple of hands before it found its forever home at Corel.  I still have copies of WordPerfect from WP 5.0 to WPX5, current about three versions behind.

There are things I would rather in do in WordPerfect. But I can now do most things I need to do in Word. 

I don't know who said this first, but it continues to be true:   If you can't beat 'em join 'em.

People like to tell me how great they were with WordPerfect and how much better it was. You're preaching to the choir. Here a short list of the things I liked better  in WordPerfect 5.1

1. Ability to insert text into a style.  The _/ format for footnote text in WordPerfect caused a million problems during conversion. Most of the footnotes would convert with the number 1 and would not increment. The fix? Remove formatting before conversion.

2. No section breaks. The document stream paradigm worked well for us for a very long time. 
   Now people ask questions like Why is Word So Hard to Use? 

3. Styles. I used styles in WordPerfect 5.0. During a WP to Word conversion, I had this exchange:
   Attorney: "I'm an expert on WordPerfect. Is there an equivalent in WordPerfect to this Word styles thing? If so, what is it called?"
   Me: "Styles"

4. Multiple numbering schemes in the same document with ease.

5. Ability to mark run-in headings and include paragraph numbering without the need for a third-party program or advanced word processing skills.

6. The numerous resources for WordPerfect via books and magazines. A lot of this is online now, but the quality -- and applicability -- is different. To get what you want, you need to hire a programmer.

7. PerfectScript for programming macros. This was much easier to learn than Word VBA and did not insert a lot of unnecessary code.

8. Merge language – accessible to the average person. MVPs have to write Word add-ins that allow us to do in Word what the WordPerfect Merge Handbook could teach you in a couple of hours.

9. Invisible soft return. A similar feature exists in Word (No Width Optional Break); WordPerfect's worked better.

10. Selecting text. As a word processing specialist,  I make it a point to learn keyboard shortcuts. WordPerfect text selection was more efficient and required fewer hand movements than Word. The MVPs have written many articles about Word.  These are particularly fascinating and may aid your understanding of Word's paradigm:  Word doesn't know what a page is;
    "Word doesn't know what a paragraph is" and "Word doesn't know what a sentence is."*

11. Parallel Columns and parallel columns with block protect. (WordPerfect developed tables before Word. But Word allowed rows to span pages before WordPerfect could.)

12. Table Math – a Biggie!!! A selling point in getting legal to make the switch was the ability to embed spreadsheets into documents. Another disaster. The documents were too complex to compare. But the biggest problem is that the embedded information could not span pages. Most of the financial tables we used to need to embed were several pages long. The additional information could only be displayed by double-clicking in the document. At the time, 100% of the time documents were printed. Even with electronic document now, this is still an issue. Embedded worksheets still do not span multiple pages, 20 years later. Greg Maxey has written code that makes Word table math act like WordPerfect table math. Why hasn't Microsoft embraced this?

13. Temporary macros you could code using "Variables" and execute using Alt+1, Alt+2, etc..

14. WordPerfect actually listened to their customers. I've read that WordPerfect was marketed to secretaries and students. Turns out this was good. Secretaries (mostly female) were doing most of the documents. Students had to do papers for school; they’d enter business with a decent word processing skillset (sometimes). I have not yet onboarded a single attorney (digital native) who has ever heard of styles or knew anything about multi-level lists. If they did, they wouldn't try to recreate numbering schemes developed when documents are created on a typewriter where logical rules of paragraph numbering did not apply. They wouldn't call the Help Desk and ask what button do I click to create a table of contents for a 70-page document IMMEDIATELY.  When you tell them you'll need at 2-3 minutes, they split the screen and start cutting and pasting.

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*Citations to be be added later.