Basic Operation

General Information

This chapter provides general information about FileMerlin™ and why you should use it.

What is FileMerlin™

FileMerlin™ software converts a very wide variety of file types accurately between different applications, including all popular legacy and modern word processors, as well some of the popular spreadsheet and database formats.

In addition to applications such as word processors, it can convert to other important file formats such as PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format), HTML (for web publishing), XML (for structured processing of documents or data) and simple text or comma-separated values (e.g., for programmatic examination of content).

It also converts many embedded or linked objects such as spreadsheets and presentations embedded in MS Word and MS Works documents, as well as graphics and pictures embedded in or linked to many kinds of word processor documents.

Further, if the file type is not recognized or supported, FileMerlin™ offers the option to extract whatever text content is possible and put it into a file format of your choice.

Why use FileMerlin™ ?

Although some programs may provide the ability to import or export other file formats, FileMerlin™ offers many significant advantages over these built-in filters:

Very accurate and complete conversion - FileMerlin™ converts not only the text, but in most cases also practically all formatting and special functions such as tables, graphics, autonumbering, fonts, hanging indents, etc. to the extent that they are supported or permitted in the destination format. In general, the conversion is considerably superior to anything available using word processor built-in filters or other alternatives.

Stand-alone conversion – Unlike some other conversion products on the market, FileMerlin™ does not require the source or destination application to be installed. It is a purely stand-alone and self-sufficient convertor. For example, other PDF convertors which work as printer drivers require you to open a document to be converted in the application that created it, the “print” to a PDF file. With FileMerlin™, the application that created the document is not needed. Instead, FileMerlin™ reads the document and converts it directly.

Very easy to use - FileMerlin™ presents a straightforward and easy user interface with no training required. Various levels of online help are available, including instant "quick-help" using the right mouse button. You may convert a single file or thousands of files with a few simple mouse clicks, including files in nested folders.

Automatic determination of source file format - FileMerlin™ can automatically determine the source file type and revision of most file formats, and provide the appropriate conversion without any effort on your part.

Extensive and flexible batch conversion support - In addition to conversion of multiple files through the user interface, FileMerlin™ also supports a command-line batch mode for unattended operation.

Extremely fast – With conversion speed in the range of 10 to 100 pages per second, FileMerlin™ is faster than any other product offering this level of conversion detail and accuracy.

Unique AutoServe mode - In this mode, FileMerlin™ can run silently in the background and convert files as and when they arrive without any user or programmatic intervention.

Very customizable - FileMerlin™ provides two levels of customization: (1) a very easy-to-use and efficient user interface for commonly desired conversion customization; and (2) an advanced command-based interface for advanced users that enables customization of over a thousand conversion parameters.

Full Unicode Support - for proper handling of many non-Latin character sets such as Hebrew, Greek and Cyrillic.

Also converts graphics formats - FileMerlin™ also converts most graphics images. This includes graphics images that are linked to the original document, as well as those embedded into the source document.

Can extract text and data - FileMerlin™ includes the ability to extract document content to simple formatted or unformatted text files, as well as the ability to extract tabular content into a generic text data file such as comma-separated, tab-separated, quote-delimited, etc. This includes extraction of content to generic Unicode for languages using non-Latin character sets.

Integrates well into your system - FileMerlin™ integrates with your Windows system. For example, you may send a file to FileMerlin™ for conversion while browsing in Windows Explorer using the Send To option; or, you may drag a file to the FileMerlin™ icon for instant conversion.

API available for programmers - If you are a programmer or software developer, you may purchase a FileMerlin™ developer or AutoServe license, which lets you access the conversion functionality from your own application by making direct calls to the conversion engine DLLs using the documented API. This opens up a host of possbilities and relieves you from having to write and maintain your own conversion code.

Conversion to HTML (web publishing)

FileMerlin™ can convert your documents to well-formatted HTML level 4 for instant web publishing. It supports the advanced features afforded by this level of HTML, including the facility for complex formatting using cascaded style sheets (CSS).

FileMerlin™ can automatically embellish the converted web pages with features such as background textures, selective text coloring, table of contents and index, etc., letting you create attractive and professional-looking web pages without any additional effort.

When converting graphics for web publishing, FileMerlin™ automatically extracts or converts the pictures to .JPG or .GIF files if necessary, so that all popular browsers can display them correctly. It also places the graphics files into appropriate folders and automatically generates the links to them in the HTML file.

Conversion to Microsoft Word

FileMerlin™ can convert your documents to MS Word 97, 2000, 2002 (XP), 2003 or 2007, taking advantage of the advanced formatting and layout features offered by this word processor. FileMerlin™ generates true MS Word files in the native .DOC file format, so no additional conversion is required. It also gives you the option of using Windows (ANSI) or Unicode as the primary coding mode, thus enabling accurate conversion of documents using non-Latin character sets such as Hebrew, Greek and the Cyrillic languages.

In addition to converting to the native Microsoft Word .DOC file format, FileMerlin™ provides the option of converting to the Microsoft Office 2003 XML format as well as to the Microsoft Rich Text format. This opens up the possibility of converting documents to any software application that can read one of these file formats.

Conversion to WordPerfect

FileMerlin™ can convert your documents to WordPerfect 6 or higher (including all versions of Corel WordPerfect), taking advantage of the advanced formatting and layout features offered by this word processor. FileMerlin™ generates true WordPerfect files in the native .WPD file format, so no additional conversion is required. Files produced by FileMerlin™ are also compatible with WordPerfect 6 for Dos.

Conversion to PDF

FileMerlin™ can convert your documents to PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) without requiring you to open and print the document in the application that created it. It is up to 100 times faster than convertors that work as printer drivers, and in addition offers customizability letting you tweak the conversion to suit your particular requirements.

Conversion to Plain Text

FileMerlin™ can convert documents, HTML files, data files and spreadsheets to unformatted text (e.g., for content examination) as well as to formatted text (e.g., to create a presentable plain text file with appropriate indents, tab positioning, tables with layout, etc.). It can also convert word processing or HTML tables and spreadsheets to a plain text flat file format such as comma-separated, quote-delimited, tab-separated, etc. In all cases, you can select between pure ASCII-only output, output conforming to any popularly used code page (such as Windows, ANSI, code page 850 and many others), as well as any Unicode output format.

Licensing FileMerlin™ by Function

FileMerlin™ is modular in functionality, and you may purchase only or as many functions you need. Currently, FileMerlin™ is available with the following functions:

Web - This function lets you convert documents to HTML for publishing well-formatted web pages on the web. It also lets you convert to simple text (e.g., for programmatic examination of file content).

Word - This function lets you convert documents to MS Word 97, 2000, 2002 (XP), 2003 and 2007, with text and formatting intact (including complex and advanced formatting). It supports conversion to the Microsoft Word native .DOC format, as well as to Microsoft Office 2003 XML format and Microsoft Rich Text format (RTF). It also lets you convert to simple text.

WordPerfect - This function lets you convert documents to WordPerfect 6 or higher, with text and formatting intact (including complex and advanced formatting). It supports conversion to the WordPerfect native .WPD format. It also lets you convert to simple text.

PDF - This function lets you convert documents to PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format). It also lets you convert to simple text.

When you order FileMerlin™ , you may select one or more of these functions. You pay only for the functions you order, and there is a discount for ordering more than one function.

FileMerlin™ License Types

FileMerlin™ is available in single-user as well as multi-user (network) versions. Site licensing is available to users requiring a large number of copies. Programmers, software developers and webmasters wishing to incorporate this conversion technology into their own programs or web sites may license it from Advanced Computer Innovations, Inc. under very flexible and reasonable terms incorporated into a Developer, AutoServe or OEM license.

Computer System Requirements

FileMerlin™ runs on any computer using Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, NT, 2000, 2003 or Vista, as well as 32-bit Windows emulators. It imposes no special memory or other requirements.

Installing and Running FileMerlin™

This chapter discusses how to install FileMerlin™ from CD or by downloading, how to run it and, if applicable, purchase and enable the fully working copy.

Installing from CD

Insert the Advanced Computer Innovations, Inc. CD into your drive. In most cases, an installation dialog box appears automatically. If it does not appear in a few seconds, run the program SETUP.EXE on the CD.

In the installation dialog box, click FileMerlin™ .

This starts the FileMerlin™ Setup Program. Respond to the dialogs on the screen, and FileMerlin™ will be installed on your hard disk.

Installing by downloading

If you download the FileMerlin™ software, you obtain a file named FMERLIN.EXE. Run this file by locating it with Windows Explorer and doubleclicking it. This starts the FileMerlin™ Setup Program. Respond to the dialogs on the screen, and FileMerlin™ will be installed on your hard disk.

Installation Results

The Setup Program creates a desktop group named FileMerlin. In this group it places various icons/shortcuts that let you easily run the program, bring up the program documentation as well as network usage documentation and, if required, uninstall the program. The Setup Program then starts FileMerlin™ .

Starting, Evaluating and Buying FileMerlin™

FileMerlin™ starts automatically immediately after installation. When it exits, it leaves an icon for its folder on the desktop. To run it later, open this folder and click the FileMerlin™ program in it; or, click Start in the Windows taskbar, then click Programs, FileMerlin and FileMerlin Program. When FileMerlin™ is run, it presents its Main Window which looks like this:

The factory-shipped copy of FileMerlin™ first runs in the Trial Mode. In this mode, it introduces spelling and numeric inaccuracies in the converted file, but operates in every other way like the unrestricted version. This lets you to see how the program works and the quality of conversion. Once you decide to purchase the software, you may convert the installed software to the fully functional mode by entering a special 10-character key code. To do this, click Purchase Now in the upper right corner of the main panel. This brings up the following dialog box:

If you have already purchased the software, you will find the key code in a sealed envelope that came with the product, or you may have obtained this key code by phone, eMail or other means. In this case, click Manual Purchase , and enter the key code into the slot that appears. This automatically enables FileMerlin™ for full functionality.

If you do not have the key code but would like to purchase FileMerlin™ instantly with a credit card at any time, click Internet Purchase or Modem Purchase . This brings up an order form, then encrypts and sends the information to Advanced Computer Innovations, Inc.'s secure transaction servers over the internet or with a direct telephone call. Since your credit card number is either heavily encrypted or does not go over the Internet, there is no security compromise. As soon as the transaction is completed (which takes only a few seconds), FileMerlin™ is automatically enabled for full functionality. You should note down the key code which the program gives you, and keep it in a safe place. If you ever need to reinstall FileMerlin™ in the future, you may at that time enable FileMerlin™ for full functionality by executing a manual purchase using this key code that you have already paid for.

FileMerlin™ Operations

This chapter briefly discusses the general sequence of steps when using FileMerlin™ , as well as some of its other features. More details on all these functions are given in later chapters.

General Sequence of Steps

In general, when using FileMerlin™ to convert files, you carry out the following steps:

Select or specify the source file(s) you wish to convert by clicking Files in the Source area.

Select or specify the destination format you wish to convert to by clicking Format in the Destination area.

Specify the destination for the converted file(s) by clicking Files in the Destination area.

Do the conversion by clicking Convert .

You can view any of the specified source or destination files by clicking the corresponding View button.

Options and Other Features

Beyond the basic steps, FileMerlin™ gives you a lot more options. Some of them are summarized below:

You may specify wild card characters "*" and "?" as part of the source file name(s) to literally convert thousands of files in a single operation.

FileMerlin™ gives you a lot of flexibility in specifying how converted files should be named, including the use of "wild cards", the option to replace or extend the file name extension, as well as embedded sequence numbers to distinguish converted files that may otherwise have the same name. This is described in more detail later.

The check boxes in the Source and Destination areas of the main window let you convert files in the specified source folder as well as in all its nested folders automatically. Further, you have the option of automatically replicating the source folders tree structure into the destination folder.

The check boxes in the Options area, as well as further options brought up by clicking More Options , let you customize how FileMerlin™ operates. The easiest way to find out more about an option is to click the right mouse button on it.

To customize the way FileMerlin™ converts your files, click Customize to customize commonly used conversion parameters using a graphical user interface, or Advanced to effect advanced and extremely detailed customization of more than a thousand conversion parameters using scripted commands.

To view a file whose name appears in the Source or Destination area of the main window, click the associated View button. FileMerlin™ immediately launches, if possible, the application associated with the file.

FileMerlin™ may be run in the pure batch mode where all required parameters are specified on the command line and no further user interaction is required. This is described later.

Other ways to start FileMerlin™

FileMerlin™ may also be started indirectly to convert a file as follows:

When exploring in Windows Explorer, you may right-click a file to bring up a pop-up menu. One of the options in that menu is "Send To". If you select this option, FileMerlin™ is one of the targets to which you can send the file. Doing so sends that file to FileMerlin™ , which opens up the FileMerlin™ main dialog box with the source file name already filled in, ready to be identified and converted.

You may drag a file to the FileMerlin™ icon. This also sends the file to FileMerlin™ for conversion, i.e., it opens up the FileMerlin™ main dialog box with the source file name already filled in, ready to be identified and converted.

You may copy a file and paste it on the FileMerlin™ Icon. This also sends the file to FileMerlin™ for conversion, i.e., it opens up the FileMerlin™ main dialog box with the source file name already filled in, ready to be identified and converted.

On-line Help

Though very easy and intuitive to use, FileMerlin™ provides plenty of help online.

You may click the right mouse button on most dialog items to bring up quick help on that control. For example, right-clicking the Files button in the Source area brings up a quick help panel like this:

Some dialog items (such as edit fields) normally bring up a Windows properties menu when right-clicked. In such cases, right-click some other item first and then right-click that item.

When a quick help panel is displayed, the mouse cursor temporarily changes to a dot. To exit the quick help, simply click inside the displayed help panel.

For more detailed help, click the Help button. That brings up detailed hyperlinked and cross-indexed help which may be reviewed serially or searched by keywords as well as phrases.

Source Files

This chapter discusses how you specify the source file(s) to be converted when using FileMerlin™ interactively. It also discusses how you may specify the source type (i.e., its file format) or have FileMerlin™ determine it automatically - a process known as AutoRecognition (see "Autorecognizing the Source File Type").

Selecting the Source File(s)

You select the source file(s) to be converted by clicking the File(s) button in the Source area of the main window. This displays the following standard Windows dialog box:

First use the buttons at the top of this dialog to navigate to the drive and directory containing your source files. The files and folders in this directory will be displayed in the large dialog box window.

To convert a single file, doubleclick it (or click it and then the OK button). To convert several consecutive files, click the first file, then hold down the Shift key and click the last file. To convert several non-consecutive files, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking them in turn.

You may also enter the source file name, or a file(s) name template with * and ? wild cards, into the File Name entry field. Any wild card characters entered become a part of your specification and are subsequently used to select files during the conversion process.

Once the source file(s) have been selected, FileMerlin™ returns to the main window. At this point the Source area of the main window displays the source file name (if only one file was selected), or the source path with a count of files selected (if multiple files were selected), or the filename template if one was entered.

If you are sure of the source file(s) path and filename, you may enter it directly into the main window edit field without going through the above dialog box. This may also include the wild card characters * and ?.

Files in Nested Folders

If your source file specification includes one or more of the wild cards * and ?, then the Include Nested Folders check box in the Source area is enabled. Checking this box causes FileMerlin™ to convert all matching files in your specified folder as well as in all nested folders.

Source Files on networked computers

FileMerlin™ can directly access and convert files that reside on other computers networked to your computer. The computer may be specified using UNC (Universal Naming Convention) or by mapping it to a drive letter.

Autorecognizing the Source File Type

If the Auto-recognize Source File Format option has been checked in the Options area of the main window, FileMerlin™ attempts to determine the source file type automatically as discussed below:

If only one source file has been selected, FileMerlin™ attempts to determine its file type immediately when the selection is made. If the determination is successful, the recognized file format is displayed in the Source area of the main window.

If multiple source files have been selected, or if a wildcard template was entered for the source file(s), FileMerlin™ displays (Auto) as the source file(s) format in the main window. The autorecognition then takes place automatically when you try to convert the selected files using the Convert button.

FileMerlin™ recognizes file types by examining the contents of the file as well as the file name. In some cases (e.g., InterScript™ files) autorecognition is not possible because the source file does not contain any reliable signature or other indication of its origin. In such cases, the source file type has to be specified manually as discussed in the next section.

Specifying the Source File Type

If the Auto-determine Source File Format option has not been checked in the Options area of the main window, or if FileMerlin™ is unable to determine the source file(s) type, you must specify the source format manually. To do this, click the Format button in the Source area of the main window. A dialog box that looks something like this is displayed:

Select the source file format by clicking it. At this point the explanation window on the right may display some relevant information about this format. Then click the OK button to complete your selection and return to the main window.

You may also select the file format by doubleclicking it. FileMerlin™ immediately returns you to the main window. This is easier but does not give you a chance to look at any information that may be displayed in the explanation window.

Once you return to the main window after selecting the source file format manually, this file format is displayed in the Source area of the main window.

Prequalifying files for conversion

If you explicitly specify the source file(s) format as described in the previous section, FileMerlin™ normally assumes that all matching files to be converted are truly in that format and proceeds to convert them based on this assumption. This can cause a problem if your source directory or directories contain the desired along with other kinds of files. In such a situation, if the file format you have specified is autorecognizable (see "Autorecognizing the Source File Type"), you may click the check box marked Ignore files that are not in above format. If this box is checked, FileMerlin™ checks each file before conversion to ensure that it is in the stated format, and skips it if it is not. This is useful if some undesired files match your specified filename selection template. However, it also results in redundant file checking. If you are sure that all files matching your specification are indeed in the correct file format, you may uncheck this box.

Destination Files

This chapter discusses how you specify the name and location of destination file(s) when using FileMerlin™ interactively. It also discusses how FileMerlin™ can automatically compute destination file name(s) for you, a process known as auto-naming the destination file(s)..

Specifying Destination File(s)

You specify the destination file(s) name and location by clicking the File(s) button in the Destination area of the main window. When you do this, FileMerlin™ displays the following dialog window:

Click the buttons at the top of the dialog box to navigate to the drive and directory where you wish to save the converted file(s). Then enter the destination filename (single file) or file naming template (multiple files) into the file name field. A template may include special characters as described below:

You may use * and ? wild card characters to keep portions of a destination file name the same as the matching portions of the source file name. The ? character matches one single character, while the * character matches the remainder of the name or extension field. Thus for example, to preserve the name field but use .HTM for the extension field, the destination filename template would be *.HTM.

As a special case, you may enter "*.*.ext" in the name and extension portion of the destination file name. This causes the extension you specify (ext) to be appended to the source file name, rather than replacing the source extension. For example, if the destination specification is given as C:\Converted\*.*.htm, a source file named abcdef.123 is converted to abcdef.123.htm in the C:\Converted directory.

You may use a string of ">" (greater than symbol) characters to represent a sequence number. This number starts with 1 for the first file converted, and increments by one with each file. This is useful to ensure that each converted file has a unique name and so does not overwrite other converted files. Let's say, for example, you want to convert files named DOCUMENT.XX1, DOCUMENT.XX2, DOCUMENT.XX3 ... from WordPerfect to HTML, and you would like all converted files to be named with .HTM extension. If you were to use the destination filename template *.HTM, all converted files would have the same name (DOCUMENT.HTM), and would overwrite each other or prompt you each time for an action. In such a situation, you could specify the destination filename template as DOCU>>>>.HTM. This would result in the converted files being named DOCU0001.HTM, DOCU0002.HTM, DOCU0003.HTM, ... , each file having a unique name. The sequence number is formatted with leading zeroes to have the same number of characters as in the string of ">" symbols. Note that the string of ">" characters may appear in the name and/or extension portion of the destination filename template.

You may use a string of "<" (less than symbol) characters to represent the sequence number. This works just like the ">" character described above, except that the sequence number is not padded with leading zeroes.

Auto-naming the Destination File(s)

If the Auto-name destination file option has been checked in the Options area of the main window, FileMerlin™ automatically computes the name(s) of the destination file(s) by keeping the name portion of the name the same as that of the source file while using an extension dictated by or descriptive of the destination file format. In other words, it uses a destination filename template of the form *.ext where ext depends on the destination file format. For example, if the destination file format is HTML, the template used is *.htm.

A destination filename therefore depends on the source filename and the destination file format. So if auto-naming has been enabled, the destination filename(s) are computed whenever the source filename(s) or the destination file format is changed. If you do not like this behavior, you may turn auto-naming off by unchecking the Auto-name destination file option in the Options area of the main window, If you do this, you always have to specify the destination file(s) name manually as described above.

Note that auto-naming computes only the destination filename component, not the drive and directory. These latter components stay the same as most recently specified.

Same-named destination and source file(s)

If the name of a destination file works out to be the same as that of the source file it is being converted from (including all the path components), then the converted file replaces the source file, i.e., the original file is overwritten. By default, a warning message is displayed before any source file is overwritten. If you like to live on the edge, you may suppress this warning by clicking More Options in the main window.

Multiple destination files

Under certain conditions, a single source file can potentially produce multiple destination files. For example, if a Word document named TEST.DOC containing 3 tables is converted to a comma-separated data format, three destination files are produced (one for each table). In such a situation, each destination file name has a sequential number added to it. In the above example, these files may be named, e.g., TEST-1.CSV, TEST-2.CSV and TEST-3.CSV. Note that only the root of these file names (i.e., TEST.CSV) is displayed in the main window dialog box and in the conversion log.

Destination Folder Structure

If multiple files are being converted by using "*" and/or "?" wild card characters in the source file specification and nested folders in the source folder are included, then you have the option of automatically building nested destination folders to match the source nested folders structure. In order to do this, check the Replicate Nested Folders box in the Destination area of the main window. Converted files are then placed in the appropriate destination folder to replicate the original structure.

If the Replicate Nested Folders box is not checked and there are nested source folders, files from all the source folders are placed in the single destination folder that you have specified.

Destination Files on networked computers

FileMerlin™ can directly place converted files on other computers networked to your computer. The computer may be specified using UNC (Universal Naming Convention) or by mapping it to a drive letter. Please note, however, that FileMerlin™ will not create folders on a remote computer unless it is mapped to a drive letter.

Specifying the Destination File Format

Unlike the source file(s) format, which may be autorecognized (see "Autorecognizing the Source File Type"), the destination file(s) format must be specified. To do this, click the Format button in the Destination area of the main window. The actual specification process using a dialog box works identically to specifying the source file(s) format, and so is not discussed here again.

Converting and Exiting

Once the source and destination files and their types have been specified as described in the previous chapters, you may click the Convert button to execute the conversion.

When all source files have been converted, FileMerlin™ returns to the main window. At this point you may view the conversion log (as described later), convert additional files or exit the program.

The Progress Meter

Normally, FileMerlin™ displays a progress meter as each file is being converted. This is reassuring when converting large files. However, the display and maintenance of a progress meter slows down the program somewhat. This slowdown is insignificant when converting large files, but is more prominent when converting large numbers of very small files. If desired, display of the progress meter may be turned off by clicking the More Options button in the FileMerlin™ main window.

The Conversion Log

Some features in a document may not be convertible because they are not supported by the destination word processor or file format. FileMerlin™ can record such exceptions in a log file containing an audit trail. This file may be viewed after doing a conversion by clicking the View Log button in the FileMerlin™ main window, which shows the conversion log like this:

Use the scroll bar if necessary to scroll through the log. You may also use the UpArrow , DownArrow , PgUp , PgDn , Home and End keys. The log is actually stored in a text file named CONV_LOG.TXT in your temporary folder. You may click the Print or Edit Log button to bring this file up in a word processor or text editor. This lets you edit, highlight, search or print the log file.

Normally FileMerlin™ maintains a log file only for the current session. In other words, the log is cleared each time FileMerlin™ is started. However, you may accumulate the log over successive sessions by clicking the More Options button in the FileMerlin™ main window. You may also delete the log at any time by clicking the Delete Log button in order to start a new log for subsequent conversions.

Exiting FileMerlin™

When you're all done converting, click the Exit button to close FileMerlin™ . Normally FileMerlin™ remembers your program settings from one session to the next. This is done by saving these settings when you exit FileMerlin™ . If you do not wish to save these settings, uncheck the Save Settings on Exit box in the FileMerlin™ main window.

More Options

In addition to the options that can be set in the main window, FileMerlin™ provides more options that may be accessed by clicking More Options . This brings up the Additional Options window, which looks like this:

This window lets you specify various operational parameters.

If destination folder does not exist ... - You may select what FileMerlin™ should do if a destination folder does not exit. If you opt to not create it, conversion of that file will not take place. If you opt to prompt and create it, FileMerlin™ prompts you every time a new destination folder needs to be created, and gives you the option to create it or abort the conversion. Or, you may opt to let FileMerlin™ create the destination and proceed with conversion without prompting.

When converting multiple files ... - When converting multiple files, FileMerlin™ gives you the option to (1) pause and have the user acknowledge each conversion; (2) pause and have the user acknowledge only those conversions that were not successful; or (3) do not pause for any user acknowledgement. Depending on how much interaction you desire with FileMerlin™ , you may select the appropriate of these options.

Warn if destination file overwrites existing file - In its factory-shipped condition, this checkbox is checked, and FileMerlin™ warns you if an output (converted) file is going to overwrite a previously existing file. It proceeds to write over the existing file only if you explicitly authorize it to do so. You may uncheck this box, in which case FileMerlin™ overwrites the previously existing file without warning. We strongly suggest that this box stay checked.

Accumulate Log over multiple sessions - Normally, FileMerlin™ starts a fresh conversion log with each session, i.e., a previously existing conversion log is deleted at the start of a new session. You may check this box to suppress this deletion, and have the log accumulate over multiple sessions. If this box is checked, please be aware that the conversion log can grow significantly over time.

Preserve File Date and Time - Normally, the date and time stamp of a converted file represents the time it was created (converted). You may check this box to stamp converted files with the date and time of the original files they were converted from.

Show Progress Meter - Normally, FileMerlin™ displays a progress meter as each file is being converted. This is reassuring when converting large files. However, the display and maintenance of a progress meter slows down the program somewhat. This slowdown is insignificant when converting large files, but is more prominent when converting large numbers of very small files. If desired, display of the progress meter may be turned off by unchecking this option box.

Enable SmartMouse - SmartMouse is a FileMerlin™ feature whereby the mouse cursor automatically positions on a default button every time a new window opens. Some users love this feature, others find it distracting. This feature is turned on by default, and you may turn it off by unchecking this option box.

Enable Sound - FileMerlin™ uses a few sound signals as part of its normal operation (e.g., after a batch of files has been converted). You may uncheck this option box for silent operation.

Place FileMerlin™ icon on desktop - If this option box is checked (default setting), an icon for the FileMerlin™ folder is kept on the Windows Desktop. From this folder icon, you can easily run FileMerlin™ , view the user manual and access other FileMerlin™ support functions. If you do not wish to have this icon on your Windows Desktop, you may uncheck this option box. The FileMerlin™ functions are still accessible by clicking the Start button in the Windows taskbar.

Include FileMerlin in "Send To" menu - If this box is checked, an entry for FileMerlin™ is placed in the Windows "Send To" menu, which appears if a file is right-clicked, for example, in My Computer or Windows Explorer. This lets you convert a file instantly as you are exploring folders. If you do not wish to include FileMerlin™ in the Send To list, you may uncheck this option box.

AutoServe - This function, which lets you set up FileMerlin™ to convert automatically in the background, is described in detail in the next chapter.

Once you have set up these options the way you want, click OK to save these settings and close the Additional Options window. If you wish to discard the changes made to these options, click Cancel instead.

File Types

Word Processors

FileMerlin™ is primarily a very powerful word processor document convertor. It converts between a very large array of word processor file types. Further, it handles even complex document formatting and layout as well as advanced modern-day document functions.

In addition to various word processing program file types, FileMerlin™ also supports conversions involving other important document file formats such as HTML, XML, formatted or unformatted text (ASCII, ANSI, Unicode or code page based), RTF (Rich Text Format), DCA/RFT (Document Content Architecture – Revisable Form Text), and several others.

Data Bases and Spreadsheets

FileMerlin™ can convert data base files (such as Microsoft Access, FoxPro and dBase) to tables in word processing document files (e.g., MS Word tables), as well as to generic data base file formats such as comma-separated, tab-separated, quote-delimited, etc.

Similarly, FileMerlin™ also converts spreadsheet files (such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Works) to tables or to generic data base files. When converting Excel files or MS Works spreadsheets to Word or HTML tables, detailed layout information such as cell widths, merged cells, background colors, borders, fonts, etc., are all preserved. The converted file is therefore very suitable for presentation. Note that FileMerlin™ does not convert formulas or the logic of a spreadsheet. Rather, it converts the displayable data into a well-formatted document, or into a flat file suitable for appropriate processing.

Graphics

FileMerlin™ is not a stand-alone graphics file convertor as such. However, when converting documents containing embedded or linked graphics, it converts the graphics to whatever is needed by the destination program or file format being converted to. For example, if converting from a word processor to HTML, it can extract graphics images from the source word processor document and convert them to .GIF or .JPG as required for web publishing.

Last-Resort Text Recovery

FileMerlin™ offers the option to treat any file as an unknown collection of bytes, and recover whatever text is possible from it. The recovered text is placed in the output file and destination format that you select. This is most useful for unsupported or unknown source file types, or corrupted files. Note that this works for any kind of file, not just the source file types supported by FileMerlin™ . To use this option, select "Unknown for Text Recovery" as the source file type.

Please note that under this option, FileMerlin™ looks for anything in the source file that looks like text, extracts it, and puts it into the output file. So all text content will be extracted from the source file (unless it is stored in an encrypted or non-ASCII form). However, there may also be a fair amount of "garbage" and irrelevant text interspersed with the actual text content. In some cases, text that was "deleted" may resurface. Further, the extracted text may not necessarily be in the correct sequence. So you may have to substantially edit and touch up the converted file. However, this is still a useful last-resort option.

Source File Formats

Ami Professional

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of Ami Professional (also called Ami Pro), and automatically figures out the version.

Ami Pro uses the ANSI (for American National Standards Institute) character set. Some symbols (such as the PC box- and line-drawing characters) do not exist in the ANSI set. Similarly, some ANSI characters have no counterpart in the PC set. When converting from Ami Pro, FileMerlin™ replaces any character that cannot be converted by a dummy character. You may alter or omit this replacement, as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Ami Pro supports Text Frames, which are basically rectangular regions in a document where text is inserted. Due to technical considerations, FileMerlin™ converts text frames to paragraphs placed at the end of the document.

Ami Pro always numbers footnotes (or endnotes) sequentially. Hence when converting documents with non-sequential note numbers to Ami Pro, the numbers may change. Note, though, that the converted document is still consistent, i.e., note numbers appearing in the body text match those in the notes.

Ami Pro implements outline numbering by defining special paragraph styles which automatically produce outline tags for paragraphs they apply to. When converting Ami Pro documents to other formats, FileMerlin™ correctly transfers such outline tags in the correct format.

Ami Pro requires .SAM as the filename extension for its documents.

Brother Word Processors

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all Brother Word Processors using 720K or 1.44M disks. This includes the daisy wheel, notebook and ink jet models. Some older Brother machines used 240K disks which do not work with FileMerlin™.

Brother WP requires .WPT as the filename extension for its documents.

DCA/RFT

"DCA/RFT" stands for Document Content Architecture, Revisable Form Text. This is a relatively standardized logical document file format used by IBM in many of its products. FileMerlin™ automatically identifies and converts files in this format.

DCA/RFT enables the exchange of documents between diverse IBM products (dedicated word processors, mainframe, mini- or micro-computers), as well as some non-IBM products which export to or import from this format. This lets FileMerlin™ convert from such systems. Such conversions generally preserve formatting and print controls. Please note, however, that some products import from or export to DCA/RFT incompletely, and most of them do not handle advanced functions.

DisplayWrite

FileMerlin™ automatically detects and directly converts documents produced by DisplayWrite-2, -3, -4, -4.2 and -5, without requiring them to be saved in an intermediate format like DCA/RFT.

Page breaks produced automatically or created with Ctrl E in DisplayWrite are soft page breaks and not permanent, i.e., they may be removed by repagination. Permanent breaks are produced by the Required Page End code ( Ctrl R ), and are hard page breaks. Normally FileMerlin™ converts hard page breaks, but not the soft ones since these are inserted by the destination word processor and may not be in the same place as in the original document. However, you can set up FileMerlin™ to translate soft page breaks as hard breaks as described later in the chapters on Customization.

Please also note that DisplayWrite documents do not paginate to their final form until you explicitly paginate them. FileMerlin™ correctly converts paginated and unpaginated DisplayWrite documents.

By default, DisplayWrite-2 and 3 use .TXT as the filename extension for their document files, while DisplayWrite 4.x and 5 use .DOC. However, users may use different extensions if they wish by specifying them explicitly.

DisplayWrite Assistant

DisplayWrite Assistant document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for DisplayWrite Assistant documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Enable WP

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by the word processing modules of all versions of Enable, including 1.x, 2.x, 3 (OA) and 4.x.

Mail-Merge field names in Enable are enclosed in square parentheses, and are recognized only by implicit reference to an Enable data base. Therefore, FileMerlin™ cannot tell if a word enclosed in square parentheses is a field name or just text, and so converts these codes literally.

Enable implements a Shorthand function which lets phrases or sentences be referenced using a two-letter code. The translation from the two-letter code to the phrase it represents is given in a Shorthand Table. Before printing a document in Enable, it must be expanded so that the shorthand codes are replaced by their corresponding phrases. When converting these documents to other formats, it is recommended that the document be similarly expanded. Otherwise, the converted document will contain the two-letter shorthand codes instead of the phrases they represent. In this situation, FileMerlin™ includes the shorthand table into the converted document as a non-printing comment.

Enable always numbers footnotes/endnotes sequentially using superscripted arabic numerals, and FileMerlin™ uses this convention when converting documents from other programs to Enable.

Enable WP document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Enable WP documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

By default, Enable WP uses .WPF as the filename extension for its document files. However, users may use a different extension if they wish by specifying it explicitly.

GeoWrite

GeoWrite is the word processor application distributed with GeoWorks for such handheld devices and dedicated word processors such as the Brother GeoBook. Although GeoWorks itself runs under the Geos operating system, FileMerlin™ can convert certain versions of GeoWrite files to other word processors.

HTML

FileMerlin™ can convert HTML files (including HTML 4 files containing CSS styles) to other file formats. However, there are a few considerations you should keep in mind.

Flat HTML files which present as formatted documentation may convert very well, including such features as style formatting, special characters, lists, etc. You may convert such files to formatted or unformatted text (e.g., for content extraction), to MS Word or to other formats.

Tables in HTML files may be converted to comma-separated text files for importing into data base programs. The internet provides access to a lot of data formatted as HTML tables. FileMerlin™ provides a very convenient mechanism to import such data into data base or other data processing applications.

Many modern web pages are produced by HTML editors that use scripts, nested tables and such other functions to produce interactive pages with fairly complex layout. FileMerlin™ is not intended to convert such pages, and some of these features are not supported.

IBM Personal Typing System (PTS)

FileMerlin™ converts IBM Personal Typing System (PTS) documents to other word processors. IBM PTS document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for IBM PTS documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

IBM Signature

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of IBM Signature. This file format is similar to that of XyWrite 4.0, and the same considerations apply. However, there are also significant differences between XyWrite and Signature, and FileMerlin™ correctly takes them into account.

IBM Writing Assistant

FileMerlin™ converts IBM Writing Assistant documents to other file formats.

Writing Assistant documents store very little formatting information. For example there is no differentiation between hard and soft returns, nor any codes indicating centering, right-alignment and tab alignment. So when converting these documents to other formats, FileMerlin™ deduces such variables sometimes using statistical properties of documents in general. Experience shows that these decisions are mostly valid, but some touching up may ocassionally be required. This limitation is due to the nature of the Writing Assistant file format.

IBM Writing Assistant document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for IBM Writing Assistant documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Leading Edge Word Processor (LEWP)

FileMerlin™ converts Leading Edge Word Processor (LEWP) documents (all versions from 1.3 to 1.5a) to other word processors.

LEWP used long file names as well as short (Dos) file names to reference its documents. FileMerlin™ uses the Dos file names. The long file names were used by LEWP for document management purposes, and these names are stored not in the document files but in separate (folder) files. FileMerlin™ does not have access to this information, and uses the short (Dos) file names to identify and convert files.

LEWP document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for LEWP documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

LEWP requires .DOC as the filename extension for its documents. Other files produced by LEWP (such as those with .DDR extension) are not document files, and you should not attempt to convert them.

Lotus Manuscript

FileMerlin™ converts documents from all versions of Lotus Manuscript (i.e., 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1) to other file formats, and automatically figures out the version.

When converting from Manuscript, FileMerlin™ handles both structured and unstructured documents, and fully supports document structure formatting (such as automatic section numbers and section indents).

FileMerlin™ does not support the Manuscript Equation Editor, but equations entered as text using subscripts, superscripts and extended characters are correctly converted.

Manuscript defines two kinds of tabs for numbers: decimal tabs (which align on decimal points), and numeric tabs (which align on the rightmost digit). Since other word processors do not implement numeric tabs in this manner, FileMerlin™ converts both these tab types as decimal tabs. The impact of this approximation on most documents is negligible.

Manuscript allows up to twenty font specifications in a document (ten in version 1.0), which includes specification of font sizes. These are entered in a global font table. The first three entries are reserved for specific document components, and the remaining are available for font changes throughout the document. When converting from Manuscript to other formats, FileMerlin™ correctly translates the font sizes for all 20 entries.

By default, Lotus Manuscript uses .DOC as the filename extension for its document files. However, users may use a different extension if they wish by specifying it explicitly.

Mass-11

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all PC and VAX versions of Mass-11. Documents from non-PC environments (e.g., DEC Vax computers), must be downloaded to (or be available on) a PC-compatible system before processing with FileMerlin™ . They may be downloaded either as native Mass-11 files, or in Mass-11 export format, which basically uses a carriage return and/or line feed to terminate each Mass-11 record.

Mass-11 uses the concept of "documents and folders" for file management. Each native-format Mass-11 document belongs to a "folder", and a disk or subdirectory may contain several folders. Each folder is a Dos file having filename extension .000. For example, a folder named SMITH would physically be a file named SMITH.000. The folder file contains information to manage the documents associated with it.

A native-mode document associated with a folder has the same Dos file name as the folder name, but a different extension. Document extensions use an alphanumeric numbering system starting with .AA0 and going on to .AA1, .AA2, etc. The Dos name is different from the Mass-11 name for the document, which may be up to 30 characters long but must be different for each document in a folder. Mass-11 identifies documents by their 30-character names, and the Dos name of any document may be found by examining its folder index.

When converting documents from Mass-11 to other programs with FileMerlin™ , you must specify them using their Dos name(s). FileMerlin™ encodes the 30-character Mass-11 name as the long file name in the converted document's summary area if possible. As described in chapter 6, FileMerlin™ can automatically identify native-mode Mass-11 documents, thus excluding irrelevant files in a disk or subdirectory.

Export-format Mass-11 files usually have a filename extension .TXT, even though they are not Dos text files and include binary codes. These files are useful when working with Mass-11 on non-PC platforms.

Mass-11 uses a concept similar to "printer definition files" for certain printer-specific attributes, such as font size and line height. FileMerlin™ does not have access to this information when converting Mass-11 documents, and so cannot convert these parameters automatically. However, you may convert font information in a customized manner as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Mass-11 numbers footnotes, endnotes, pages and outline tags in arabic, roman or alphabetic fashion. FileMerlin™ correctly translates such numbering styles. Mass-11 also allows "customized" numbering schemes, which are defined external to the Mass-11 document, are not available to FileMerlin™ and hence are not converted.

Mass-11 numbers footnotes/endnotes sequentially. Non-sequential numbering is only possible by using customized numbering as described earlier. Therefore, when converting documents with non-sequential footnote numbers to Mass-11, footnote numbers may change. Note, however, that the converted document is still consistent, i.e., footnote numbers appearing in the body text match the corresponding numbers in the footnotes.

Mass-11 supports automatic paragraph numbers (outline tags), but provides limited control over their format. Also, it does not support non-sequential numbering except using customized numbering as described earlier. As shipped, FileMerlin™ transfers outline tags using true Mass-11 outline codes with full functionality, which is usually preferred. But if you want an exact match with the original document which is not possible in this manner, you may customize FileMerlin™ to "expand" each outline tag into literal text as described in later chapters on customizing.

Microsoft RTF (Rich Text Format)

RTF (Rich Text Format) is a file format introduced by Microsoft to store document content in a relatively standardized manner. This file format has features to store advanced document formatting and layout functions. It is a text-based format in that it does not include any binary codes.

As word processors get more powerful and include more features, this file format has been upgraded over time and has gone through many revisions.

Most Microsoft products can read and write the RTF format. Many non-Microsoft products also include filters to read and write this file format with varying degrees of accuracy and completeness.

FileMerlin™ can convert documents from Microsoft RTF to other file formats, as well as from other file formats to RTF. This provides an alternative for converting to or from word processors and programs that may not be supported directly by FileMerlin™ but which can read from or write to the RTF format.

Microsoft RTF requires .RTF as the filename extension for its documents.

Microsoft Word

FileMerlin™ automatically identifies and converts all Dos and Windows versions of Microsoft Word. It does not directly handle Word for Macintosh (MacWord) files. However, MacWord can save its files in Word for Dos or Word for Windows format, in which case such files can be converted if they are brought over to a Windows PC.

FileMerlin™ can convert all Dos and Windows versions of Microsoft Word. The table below lists all these versions.

Revision	Minimal Operating System	Commercial Name
4	Dos	Word for Dos 4.0
5	Dos	Word for Dos 5.0
5.5	Dos	Word for Dos 5.5
6	Dos	Word for Dos 6.0
1	Windows 3.x	Word for Windows 1.0
2	Windows 3.x	Word for Windows 2.0
6	Windows 3.x	Word for Windows 6
7	Windows 95	Word 95
8	Windows 95	Word 97
9	Windows 98	Word 2000
10	Windows 98	Word 2002 or Word XP
11	Windows XP	Word 2003
12	Windows XP	Word 2007

The Dos and Windows versions of Word are dealt with separately in the following subsections.

Microsoft Word for Dos

Word for Dos allows style sheets to format a document. However, style sheet files are separate from document files, and style formatting is not explicitly recorded in the documents; instead, the document file only makes a reference to the style sheet. So when converting Word for Dos documents, style sheet formatting is not converted.

Word for Dos uses side-by-side paragraphs as equivalent to parallel columns (also called synchronized columns) provided by some other word processors. Wherever possible, therefore, FileMerlin™ translates them to parallel columns (or tables) in other formats.

Outline mode paragraphs in Word for Dos may be flush-left or indented, but this selection is made on the fly, and not recorded in the document file. When converting these documents, FileMerlin™ does not normally indent these paragraphs. However, you may opt to have them indented as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Microsoft Word for Dos document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Microsoft Word for Dos documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

By default, Microsoft Word uses .DOC as the filename extension for its document files. However, users may use a different extension if they wish by specifying it explicitly.

Microsoft Word for Windows

FileMerlin™ converts all versions of Word for Windows (also called Microsoft Office Word, WinWord, MS Word or just Word). These include versions 1, 2, 6, 7 (95), 97, 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007.

Word for Windows versions 6 and 7 use the ANSI (for American National Standards Institute) character set. This set does not include box- and line-drawing characters used by many older word processors, but these characters are either available through a special font known as the MS Line Draw) font. Word for Windows versions 8 (97) and later also use the ANSI and UniCode character sets, and encode the line drawing characters in Unicode. They do not need the MS Line Draw font. FileMerlin™ recognizes and converts box-drawing characters in all of these cases..

Word can save its documents in full-save or fast-save modes. Documents should be full-saved when completed. FileMerlin™ converts only full-saved Word documents for versions 1 through 7 (95), but for versions 8 (97) or higher it can handle full- as well as fast-saved files.

Binary and XML Word file formats

Although Word can save its documents in several different formats, each version has a preferred format. It is the format to which a document is saved by default, and the one that the program is optimized for.

The native file format for Word versions prior to 2007 is the binary .DOC file format. Although there have been many revisions of this format over time, it has been fairly stable for Word revisions 97 through 2003. Documents saved in this format have .DOC filename extension. FileMerlin™ can convert all of these .DOC format revisions.

Starting with Word 2000, documents could also be saved in XML format. The support for XML has increased with each successive revision of Word, although the implementation has also changed substantially with each revision. Documents saved in this format have .XML filename extension, and in some cases the content of a single document is distributed over multiple files. FileMerlin™ is not designed to convert Word 2000 or 2002 XML, but it can accurately convert Word 2003 XML files.

Word 2007 introduces a new document file format, which is a compressed file format that packages all document content into a single file. Files saved in this format, which is the default format for Word 2007, used a filename extension of .DOCX or .DOCM The former is used for documents that do not contain macros, the latter for documents containing macros. FileMerlin™ can accurately convert .DOCX and .DOCM files as well.

Microsoft Works

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of MS Works 2 through 4.x, and can automatically figure out the version. Note that MS Works versions 1 and 2 were used under Dos, while versions 3 and higher are Windows versions. The Windows version documents may contain embedded spreadsheets (tables), pictures and other objects. Please note that FileMerlin™ does not convert these embedded objects.

Microsoft Works versions 1 and 2 document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Microsoft Works versions 1 and 2 documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

By default, Microsoft Works uses .WPS as the filename extension for its document files. However, users may use a different extension if they wish by specifying it explicitly.

Microsoft Write

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by Microsoft Write, which is the "desk accessory" word processor included with Microsoft Windows 3.x and prior. Like Word for Windows, MS Write uses the ANSI character set, and the related considerations mentioned under Word for Windows apply to MS Write as well.

By default, Microsoft Write uses .WRI as the filename extension for its document files. However, users may use a different extension if they wish by specifying it explicitly.

Microsoft Excel

FileMerlin™ converts Microsoft Excel files to tabular layout as appropriate for the destination format. If converting to a document format, the spreadsheets in the Excel file are laid out as formatted tables. If converting to a generic format such as comma-separated, each spreadsheet in the Excel file is output to a separate comma-separated file. If such multiple destination files are produced, FileMerlin™ adds sequential numbers to their file names.

It is important to note that FileMerlin™ does not do a spreadsheet-to-spreadsheet conversion. In other words, formulas and the spreadsheet logic are not converted. Rather, the data values are converted in a formatted manner.

FileMerlin™ converts stand-alone Excel files, as well as those embedded in or linked to Word documents.

Excel versions 2003 and prior save workbooks in a binary file format by default. These files have .XLS filename extension. FileMerlin™ converts these files.

Excel 2003 can also save workbooks in an XML-based file format, although this is not its native default file format. Files saved in this manner have .XML filename extension. FileMerlin™ can also convert these files.

Excel 2007 saves workbooks by default in a new compressed file format. These files have a filename extension of .XLSX or .XLSM. The former is used for workbooks that do not contain macros, while the latter is for workbooks containing macros. Excel 2007 can also save workbooks as binary .XLS files. FileMerlin™ converts the .XLS files, but does not at present convert the .XLSX and .XLSM file types.

Microsoft PowerPoint

FileMerlin™ converts PowerPoint presentations to other file formats. It converts stand-alone presentations (e.g., .PPT files), as well as presentations that have been embedded or linked into Word documents. Further, it gives you the option to convert slides and notes, only the slides or only the notes. It also lets you specify page breaks between slides, the ordering of slides/notes, and lets you scale the layout and size to better conform to the desired destination appearance. Please see the chapter on Customization for more details about how to specify these options.

PowerPoint lets you superimpose objects, i.e., place one object on top of another object. For example, text can be placed on top of a background image. However, there is no facility to do this in the destination formats supported by FileMerlin™ Accordingly, FileMerlin™ ignores images that have other objects placed on top of them. If your PowerPoint presentation has images that are not appearing in the converted file, this is the most likely reason.

MultiMate

FileMerlin™ converts documents from MultiMate to other file formats. This includes the MultiMate 3.3 series (3.3/3.31), MultiMate Advantage (3.5/3.6), Advantage-II (3.7) and MultiMate 4.0. FileMerlin™ automatically figures out the version when converting these documents.

MultiMate does not let you specify footnote/endnote tag formats. In fact, the footnote numbers are superscripted if the printer supports that function, else they print in square parentheses. So when converting these documents, FileMerlin™ transfers no tag format information. These tags in the converted document print in the destination program's default style, or the style may be specified as described later in the chapter on Customization.

In MultiMate, footnotes may be placed at the bottom of the page where referenced, or as endnotes at the end of the document. However, this information is not stored in the document file, but specified at print time. FileMerlin™ transfers all MultiMate notes as footnotes.

In MultiMate, the left margin is specified only when printing a document, and holds for the entire document. If a document is created but never printed, the left margin value is never recorded. The same is true of right margin justification, and starting footnote number. Therefore, when converting these documents to other programs, FileMerlin™ cannot transfer these settings if the document was never printed in MultiMate. In this case, the values used in the converted document are default values, which may be changed as described later in the chapter on Customization. If the MultiMate document was printed, then these values have been set, and FileMerlin™ transfers them.

Page breaks produced automatically or created with F2 in MultiMate are soft page breaks and not permanent, i.e., they may be removed by repagination. Permanent breaks are produced with Alt B , and are hard page breaks. As shipped, FileMerlin™ converts hard but not soft breaks since the latter are inserted by the destination word processor and their location may differ from original document. However, you can set up FileMerlin™ to translate soft page breaks as hard breaks, as described later in the chapter on Customization.

MultiMate does not store footnotes in the same file as the document body, but in a file with extension .FNT (versions 3.x) or .FNX (version 4.0) in the same disk and subdirectory as its corresponding document file. FileMerlin™ fully converts MultiMate footnotes if this file is found; otherwise it converts the footnote instances correctly, but inserts the message "Missing Multimate Footnote/Endnote" in place of the footnote text.

Multimate document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Multimate documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

When identifying MultiMate documents, it helps to know that MultiMate versions prior to 4.0 use a filename extension .DOC while MultiMate 4.0 uses .DOX.

Nota Bene

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of Nota Bene, including Nota Bene for Windows. The Nota Bene file format is generally similar to that of XyWrite, and many of the considerations applying to XyWrite (see previous section) also apply to Nota Bene. However, there are many significant differences between the Nota Bene and XyWrite file formats, and FileMerlin™ takes these differences into account. Further, FileMerlin™ supports conversion of the 3-byte accented characters set included in Nota Bene Lingua, and also correctly handles the ANSI character set used by Nota Bene for Windows.

Nota Bene versions 2 and 3 document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Nota Bene versions 2 and 3 documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

PC Write

FileMerlin™ converts PC-Write documents (all versions) to other word processors.

PC-Write versions prior to 2.71 did not contain much formatting information. When converting these earlier documents, FileMerlin™ deduces as much formatting and layout information as possible, sometimes using statistical properties of documents in general. Experience shows that these decisions are mostly valid, but some touching up may ocassionally be required. This limitation is due to the nature of the file format. PC-Write versions 2.71 and higher contain better information, and those documents convert much better.

PC-Write provides a general-purpose automatic numbering scheme for functions such as automatic paragraph numbering (outline tags), numbering of list items, automatic footnote numbering, etc. FileMerlin™ fully supports such numbering, but has to make some assumptions to determine which sequences are used for which numbering. These assumptions are generally valid, but occassionally the automatic numbering in a converted document may need touching.

PC-Write has an Extra Margin (.XM) dot command as well as a regular Left Margin (L) setting in the ruler. However there is no Left-indent command or ruler setting, and the L ruler setting is generally used to produce Left indentation. Most other word processors have a left margin and a left indent function, but no extra margin. Therefore, FileMerlin™ treats the PC-Write extra margin as the Left margin used in other programs, while the PC-Write Left margin set in the ruler is like the Left indent function in other programs, in keeping with the usage philosophy of these features in PC-Write.

PC-Write allows a lot of on-screen formatting without inserting dot commands, but correct usage requires that appropriate dot commands be used so that the document format persists through repagination and reformatting operations. Accordingly, if there is a conflict between the formatting imposed by dot commands and the formatting done on-screen, FileMerlin™ gives precedence to the dot commands.

PC-Write may be customized to change its initial (default) settings. However these changes are not stored in the document files. Although FileMerlin™ can identify some such changes, it is not possible to identify all of them, in which case the standard PC-Write defaults are assumed. You may customize FileMerlin™ to supply different defaults as described later in the chapter on Customization.

PC Write document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for PC Write documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

pfs:First Choice

FileMerlin™ converts pfs:First Choice documents to other file formats. If you need to convert First Choice data base files (.FOLextension), you may use the product FirstOut™ also produced by Advanced Computer Innovations, Inc.

pfs:First Choice document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for pfs:First Choice documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

pfs:First Choice version 1

pfs:First Choice version 1 documents store very little formatting information. For example there is no differentiation between hard and soft returns, nor any codes indicating centering, right-alignment and tab alignment. So when converting these documents to other formats, FileMerlin™ deduces such variables sometimes using statistical properties of documents in general. Experience shows that these decisions are mostly valid, but some touching up may ocassionally be required. This limitation is due to the nature of the First Choice version 1 file format.

pfs:First Choice versions 2 and 3

pfs:First Choice versions 2 and 3 documents can contain substantially more formatting information than version 1, and FileMerlin™ handles their translation.

pfs:Professional Write

FileMerlin™ converts pfs:Professional Write (sometimes called ProWrite) documents to other file formats. Note that this format is different from pfs:Write.

Professional Write document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Professional Write documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

pfs:Write

FileMerlin™ converts pfs:Write documents to other file formats.

pfs:Write document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for pfs:Write documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Note that pfs:Write is different from pfs:Professional Write. Also, pfs:Write version 1 is quite different from pfs:Write version 2 as described in the following subsections.

pfs:Write version 1

pfs:Write version 1 documents store very little formatting information. For example there is no differentiation between hard and soft returns, nor any codes indicating centering, right-alignment and tab alignment. So when converting these documents to other formats, FileMerlin™ deduces such variables sometimes using statistical properties of documents in general. Experience shows that these decisions are mostly valid, but some touching up may ocassionally be required. This limitation is due to the nature of the pfs:Write version 1 file format.

Pfs:Write version 2.x

pfs:Write version 2 documents can contain substantially more formatting information than version 1, and FileMerlin™ handles their translation. pfs:Write version 2 can also produce outline files which may be used when creating structured documents. These use a filename extension .OL, and FileMerlin™ converts them as well, with formatting intact.

Samna Word IV/Plus IV

FileMerlin™ converts documents from all versions of Samna Word IV and Plus IV to other file formats, and it automatically figures out the version.

Samna supports newspaper columns, but this information is not stored in the document files. Instead, column layout is a print-time operation, and Samna documents convert to other file formats in single-column mode.

Samna supports four outline tag (section numbering) styles, viz., Roman, Arabic, Manual (also called legal numbering) and a custom style. The first three are well defined. However, details about the fourth (custom) style are not stored in document files, but in a Samna configuration file. Therefore, custom tag styles in Samna documents are not converted, and such tags print in the destination word processor's default style after conversion, or their style may be specified as described later in the chapter on Customization. The three standard styles are well defined, and they convert without any problem.

Similarly, Samna allows you to specify the format of footnote/endnote tags, but this information is not stored in the document file. Therefore, the exact formatting of these tags is not transferred when converting Samna documents. Instead, these tags in the converted document print in the destination program's default style, or the style may be specified as described later in the chapter on Customization.

In Samna, footnotes may be printed at the end of the page where referenced, or as endnotes at the end of the document. Also, footnotes are numbered sequentially. The placement and starting number are not stored in the document file but in a configuration file or specified at print time. Therefore FileMerlin™ transfers all notes as footnotes starting with number 1.

Samna Word IV and Plus IV document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Samna Word IV and Plus IV documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Spellbinder

FileMerlin™ converts Spellbinder Word Processor documents to to other word processors. It can also convert Spellbinder Desktop Publisher documents to other word processors, but ignores layout that is specific to the desktop publisher and converts them just as word processing documents.

Spellbinder document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Spellbinder documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Note that Spellbinder files are not autorecognized, so you must specify Spellbinder as the source file format when converting these files.

Spinnaker Write, Professional Write & First Choice

These are later versions of corresponding pfs: programs (see "pfs:Write", "pfs:Professional Write", and "pfs:First Choice". FileMerlin™ converts the Spinnaker versions of all these programs as well, as described in the sections on the pfs: versions.

Text files

Plain text files are files that contain just text and no formatting (other than line endings and possibly tabs and page breaks). Text files have no means for encoding functions such as boldface, hyperlinks, references and other features found in today’s word processors.

However, conversion of text files can still be a complex issue when non-English characters and special symbols are involved. That’s because there are many different standards for encoding these characters and symbols.

The most important encoding standards for text files are:

7-bit ASCII

PC OEM Character Set (use in MS-Dos, code-page dependent)

ANSII or Windows

Unicode UTF-8 encoding

Unicode UTF-16L (little-endian)

Unicode UTF-16B (big-endian)

Standard UTF-16 files store a byte-order mark at the start of the file to indicate if they are stored in Little-Endian or Big-Endian format.

FileMerlin™ can convert plain text files to other formats. You have to specify the encoding of the files you are converting. However, when converting standard UTF-16 files (16-bit Unicode files with byte-order mark), FileMerlin™ can automatically determine if the coding is little-endian or big-endian.

Total Word

Total Word is from the same company that produced Volkswriter (Lifetree Software), and is sometimes referred to as Volkswriter 4. FileMerlin™ converts Total Word documents to other word processors.

Volkswriter

FileMerlin™ converts Volkswriter Deluxe and Volkswriter-3 documents to other word processors.

Volkswriter Deluxe documents are basically ASCII text files, with a few control codes to implement functions such as boldface, underline, etc. The document files do not contain much formatting information. FileMerlin™ reconstructs as much of the formatting as possible by using "Smart ASCII conversion" logic, and also translates the control codes to produce a clean working document. Note that some formatting attributes in Volkswriter Deluxe (such as margins and justification) are not stored with the document but are specified as a print layout at print time. Since this information does not reside in the document file, FileMerlin™ cannot convert such information.

FileMerlin™ converts Volkswriter-3 documents as well, however some of the formatting features which did not exist in Volkswriter Deluxe (such as in-document layouts, headers and footers) are not converted. By and large, it is easy to reinsert these functions manually into the converted document.

Volkswriter document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for Volkswriter documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

WordMarc Composer

FileMerlin™ autorecognizes and converts WordMarc, WordMarc Composer and WordMarc Composer Plus documents produced on PCs to other word processors. It can also autorecognize and convert such documents produced on other computers such as VAX or Prime machines, provided they are transferred to a PC using LinkMarc.

WordMarc document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for WordMarc documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

WordPerfect

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all WordPerfect versions (Dos as well as Windows) from 4.x through Corel WordPerfect 12. It also automatically and reliably identifies the source file format for WordPerfect versions 5.0 and higher. WordPerfect 4.x files do not have a unique signature to enable reliable identification. However, most of the time FileMerlin™ can automatically identify WordPerfect 4.x files as well. Some WordPerfect 4.x files may not be autorecognized, in which case you should specify the source file format manually. If you do so, make sure to uncheck the box Skip files that are not in specified format.

FileMerlin™ does not convert equations created by WordPerfect's equation editor.. However, equations created using symbols and character functions such as superscripts and subscripts are converted correctly.

WordPerfect versions 7 and higher (also called Corel WordPerfect) can produce files in Microsoft OLE format. FileMerlin™ can convert these files without any problem.

WordPerfect versions 4.x through 6.x save graphics in what is called the WordPerfect Graphics (.WPG) file format. When converting documents containing such graphics, FileMerlin™ extracts the graphics into external .WPG files. Destination word processors such as Microsoft Word then import these graphics using their built-in filters. WordPerfect versions 7 and later incorporate .WPG graphics as well as images in other file formats such as .JPG, .TIF, .BMP, etc. FileMerlin™ can also convert these documents with the graphics.

WordPerfect 4.x document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for WordPerfect 4.x documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

WordStar

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of WordStar (3.x through 7.0 - also called WordStar Classic or WordStar Professional), and WordStar-2000. FileMerlin™ does not handle WordStar for Windows.

WordStar Classic and WordStar 2000 document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for WordStar Classic and WordStar 2000 documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

WordStar Classic and WordStar-2000 file formats are quite different, and they are dealt with separately.

WordStar Classic

This includes all versions of WordStar Classic (3.3, 4.0, 5.5, 6.0 and 7.0). FileMerlin™ can autodetect versions 5.5 or higher. Lower versions cannot be autodetected, and the source file format must be specified manually.

WordStar has a Page Offset (.PO) as well as Left-margin (.LM) dot command. However there is no left-indent command, and the .LM command is generally used to produce indentation in WordStar 4.0 or higher. Most other word processors have a left-margin and a left-indent function, but no page offset. Therefore, FileMerlin™ treats the WordStar page offset as the left margin used in other programs, while the WordStar left margin is like the left indent function in other programs, in keeping with the usage philosophy of these commands in WordStar.

WordStar may be customized to change its initial (default) settings. However these changes are not stored in the document files. Although FileMerlin™ can identify most such changes, it is not possible to identify all of them. In such cases, standard WordStar defaults are assumed, and you may customize FileMerlin™ to supply different defaults as described later in the chapter on Customization.

WordStar-2000

FileMerlin™ automatically detects and converts files from all versions of WordStar-2000.

WordStar-2000 uses "printer definition files" for certain printer-specific formatting attributes, such as font size, line height, line spacing and print color. All required information about such attributes is not stored in the document files. As a result, FileMerlin™ cannot convert these parameters.

WordStar-2000 supports separate left margin and page offset settings. The former may be set and changed within a document, but reduces the working screen area. The latter does not take up screen space but is fixed for the entire document. FileMerlin™ interprets the sum of these two values as the left margin.

XyWrite

FileMerlin™ converts documents produced by all versions of XyWrite (including XyWrite 4.0 for Dos, and XyWrite for Windows). There are some significant differences between the XyWrite version 4.0 file format and that of earlier versions, and FileMerlin™ takes these differences into account.

XyWrite (particularly versions III and prior) stores some printer-specific details in printer driver files and not in the document files. FileMerlin™ does not have access to these details when converting XyWrite documents. For example, font size specified using the XyWrite PT command and print color cannot be converted, since the arguments in these commands are basically entries into the printer definition file. However, font size specified using the SZ command is fully converted, since its argument explicitly provides the desired size.

XyWrite comes with default formatting values which take effect until changed in a document. However, it is possible to change these defaults using an initialization file. The non-standard defaults are not available to FileMerlin™ which always assumes standard defaults when converting XyWrite documents.

XyWrite has Page Offset (OF), left-margin (LM) and paragraph indent (IP) commands. When converting XyWrite documents FileMerlin™ combines the effects of OF and LM commands into a single left margin value, while the IP command is interpreted for left indent. This way, the resulting net margins and indents match the originals.

XyWrite provides general-purpose counters for functions such as automatic paragraph numbering (outline tags). FileMerlin™ fully supports such numbering. However, XyWrite provides more flexibility than most other word processors, such as multiple independent sequences of automatically numbered items. If such features are encountered in an XyWrite document, FileMerlin™ makes some assumptions to determine which counters are used for outline tag generation. These assumptions are generally valid, but occassionally the automatic numbering in a converted document may need touching up to correct for the non-availability of some of these functions in the destination word processor.

XyWrite provides a powerful set of indexing markers for generating indexes and table-of-contents lists. Basically, text may be marked or entered into marker variables, and these markers may later be used to produce either an index, table of contents or any other list. When interpreting these markers, FileMerlin™ makes some assumptions to determine how they are used for generating an index or table of contents. These assumptions are generally valid, but occassionally indexing and table-of-contents codes in the converted document may need touching up.

XyWrite provides three categories of notes for implementing footnotes/endnotes. When converting XyWrite to other file formats, FileMerlin™ automatically figures out which category (or categories) are footnotes, and which are endnotes.

XyWrite versions 2 and III document files use the original IBM PC character set (also called the OEM character set), where special characters are identified by means of a Dos code page. By default, FileMerlin™ assumes the US Dos Code page (code page 437) for XyWrite versions 2 and III documents. However, you may change this for documents created in other locales or environments, as described later in the chapter on Customization (see "Text Tab").

Destination File Formats

Converting to Text

FileMerlin™ lets you extract the textual content of documents into formatted or unformatted text files. Unformatted text files pay no attention to any formatting in the source document. The idea is simply to extract the text for content examination. Formatted text files are laid out as best as possible to be similar to the layout in the original file, subject to the limitations inherent in the plain text file format. In addition, FileMerlin™ also gives you the option to extract tabular content from documents and data base (or spreadsheet) files, and output the data into a generic flat file format.

Note that there are many word processing functions that have no relevance in plain text files (formatted or unformatted). For example, character formatting such as font name or size, font color, bold, italics, etc., cannot be represented even in formatted text.

Conversion to unformatted text, formatted text and separarated/delimited format is included with FileMerlin™ 's Web and/or Word licenses.

Unformatted Text

To convert documents to unformatted text, select Unformatted Text as the output format. For example, an indexing program may use this feature to examine the contents of documents so that they may be indexed into categories or by keywords. Or, an artificial intelligence program may use this feature to make sense out of the contents of documents, without having to deal with all the complex formatting codes embedded in the document files.

In this mode, each paragraph in the converted file starts on a new line. There is no other formatting maintained.

Formatted Text

To convert documents to formatted text, select Formatted Text as the output format. In this mode, the converted files are laid out to resemble the layout of the source document in terms of formatting features such as indents, line spacing, margins, tab positioning, decimal alignment and many other functions. Further, tables are laid out as tables with the option of also including or suppressing the borders and lines. Text files produced using this option are suitable for presentation.

Note, however, that there are inherent limitations in the text file format, and not all formatting or layout can be carried over. For one thing, a text file has no provision to represent underling, boldface, italics and many other text enhancements. Further, most modern documents are produced using proportionally spaced fonts with adjustable microspacing and kerning, as well as varying font sizes. However, text files do not harbor any concept of font size or adjustable spacing. In fact, there is no inherent concept of character size, just character counts. That is why plain text files are best viewed or printed using a fixed-spacing font such as Courier. However, this causes a problem with issues such as alignment and line lengths due to inherent inconsistencies introduced when converting from proportional spacing with varying font sizes to fixed spacing with a fixed font size. You can optimize the conversion in this respect to your liking as described later in the chapter on Customization.

When converting to formatted text, FileMerlin™ by default uses rectangular brackets to show superscripts, and angular brackets to show subscripts. This behavior can be changed by using FileMerlin™ 's customization options.

Separated/delimited value format

FileMerlin™ gives you the option to extract tabular content from documents and data base (or spreadsheet) files, and output the data into a generic flat file format, such as the comma-separated, quote-delimited or tab-separated format. This is done by selecting separated/delimited as the output format. Note that when converting document files using this feature, only the contents of tables within those documents is extracted. Any text that is outside of tables is ignored. The data output into the generic flat file format may then be imported into other data base type applications.

When converting to a separated/delimited generic file format, if the source file contains multiple tables, then multiple output files are produced with the table name (or number) appended to the specified name portion of the destination file name.

Destination Code Page

When converting documents to plain text (formatted, unformatted or separated/delimited), non-ASCII characters need special coding. FileMerlin™ lets you specify the coding you wish to use (e.g., ANSI, Dos Code Page, Unicode, etc.), as described later in the chapter on Customization. The following destination code pages are supported:

ASCII only (no extended characters)

ANSI and Windows (code page 1252)

Dos US Code Page (437)

Dos Multilingual Code Page (450)

Dos Eastern Europe Code Page (852)

Dos Portugese Alternate Code Page (860)

Dos French Canadian Alternate Code Page (863)

Dos Scandinavian Alternate Code Page (865)

Unicode UTF-8 coding

Unicode UTF-16 coding (BE, Big Endian for Unix)

Unicode UTF-16 coding (LE, or Little Endian for Windows)

Other Text Output Options

FileMerlin™ offers many other output text control options when converting to formatted, unformatted or separated/delimited text as described later in the chapter on Customization. In particular, you can customize, among other features:

Line endings (carriage return and/or line feed, and their sequence)

EOF (end-of-file) character at the end of text files

How to implement page breaks

How to format tables when converting to formatted text

How to scale for proportional font spacing when converting to formatted text

Parameters for separated/delimited text

Converting to the Web (HTML)

Web Pages vs. Paper Documents

There are some key functional differences between web pages and paper printouts, and an understanding of these issues helps to maximize the benefit obtainable from publishing documents on the Internet.

Pagination

Paper documents are composed of pages. Web documents, on the other hand, constitute a stream of information that is not paginated. You move to different parts of a web document not by flipping pages but by scrolling or using hyperlinks. So page numbers have no significance in web documents. This is significant if your documents contain page numbers in headers/footers, or if they contain cross-references such as "see page 42".

Paper Width

Unlike the fixed paper width of paper documents, web documents are viewed on a computer screen and the document width depends on the user's screen size and resolution. It is possible to force the web document width to the lowest common denominator of your users, but it is generally preferable to let users decide the width. FileMerlin™ has the option of permitting a floating right margin so that the web document adjusts itself to an individual user's screen width.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks provide a very useful navigational aid in web documents. Whereas in a paper document you jump by referencing a page number, in a web document this is done by means of a hyperlink. This is particularly useful in the reference portion of web documents, such as in the table of contents and index. This is also the reason why a table of contents and an index goes a long way in enhancing the usefulness of a web document.

Color

By and large, paper documents are black-and-white. Web documents, on the other hand, easily lend themselves to create use of color. Web documents can be made quite attractive simply by providing a background texture and a pleasing selection of colors for the different document components such as body text, borders and headings. FileMerlin™ has the ability to automatically embellish and colorize your documents during conversion without any effort on your part.

HTML Limitations

When converting word processing documents to HTML for web publishing, it is important to realize some of HTML's limitations. HTML was never intended to be word processing, desktop publishing or page layout language. It does not provide true native support for some of the functions we take for granted in word processing, such as anchored text frames, hanging indents, headers/footers, footnotes/endnotes, different kinds of tabs, etc. However, FileMerlin™ converts these functions making reasonable assumptions and fits them into the existing HTML framework to produce very useable, attractive as well as functional web pages. This is one of the key areas where FileMerlin™ conversions are far superior to those available by other means such as the built-in export filters provided with the word processors.

Embellishing your Web Pages

FileMerlin™ provides the facility to automatically enhance the useability and attractiveness of converted web documents by picking up your documents' key elements without any effort on your part. This can be done in several areas as described in the sections that follow:

Hyperlinked Table of Contents

FileMerlin™ can generate a hyperlinked table of contents by picking up entries from marked codes in your document as well as from text marked with heading level styles. This holds whether or not a table of contents was actually generated in the original document.

Hyperlinked Index

FileMerlin™ can generate a bidirectionally hyperlinked index by picking up entries from marked codes in your document. This holds whether or not an index was actually generated in the original document.

Texture and Colors

FileMerlin™ can automatically apply a background color or texture to your web pages to provide a more pleasing and interesting appearance. In combination with an appropriate selection of colors for the different document elements, this can produce very pleasing and professional-looking web pages from straightforward word processing documents. In fact, FileMerlin™ comes with many ready-to-use texture and color profiles already set up. Simply select the profile you like when you do a conversion. You can also use these profiles as starting points to create and save profiles of your own.

If a background texture has been selected, then the complete filename of the texture image file has to be encoded into each converted HTML file so that this image can be accessed when the converted file is viewed with a browser. This can cause a problem if the HTML files are eventually moved to a different computer since the background image files may no longer be available in a corresponding directory location. To solve this problem, FileMerlin™ does not encode the path of the background texture file into the HTML file if the background file already exists in the destination directory. Therefore, if you intend to move the converted HTML files to a different location after conversion (e.g., upload them to a web server), you should first copy all required background texture files into a directory and then use FileMerlin™ to convert your document files into the same directory. This way all required files will be in that directory and absolute paths to the background texture files will not be coded in the HTML files. You may then copy the entire contents of this directory to their final destination, e.g., the web server, and the files along with the background textures will be viewable without any problem.

Conversion of Graphics

When converting documents with graphics, FileMerlin™ figures out if a graphics image is embedded or linked, and automatically handles both kinds even in the same document. On the destination side, the graphics files are placed external to the HTML file, and appropriate links are created.

Conversion between Graphics Image formats

'There are many different graphics image file formats, such as .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .TIF, .WMF, .PCX, .WPG, .EMF, .PNG, etc. Web browsers by default generally display only a few file types, and the two file formats considered as standard for web pages are .JPG and .GIF. So when converting documents containing graphics, FileMerlin™ converts source graphics to one of these two if necessary (with the exception of converting .WPG graphics). In addition to .JPG and .GIF, you may also permit FileMerlin™ to output .BMP and .WMF files for web pages, as described later in the chapter on Customization.

When converting graphics files, FileMerlin™ does not alter your original files. Instead, it creates new files and places them in a directory structure associated with the target file name as described in the next section.

Location of Linked Files

If FileMerlin™ has to create new graphics files to link with a converted document (either because the files had to be extracted or because of a change in the graphics file format), it places them in a directory named the same as the source document followed by _g. The user need not necessarily be aware of this directory structure, since FileMerlin™ automatically places the correct links to the graphics files in the converted documents. You may also opt to have all linked graphics files placed in this directory, even those that would otherwise be usable from their original location.

The links to these external graphics files may be relative (i.e., with respect to the directory of the converted document) or absolute (i.e., include the complete path). By default, FileMerlin™ places relative links in the document files. This way, if you move the document file and its associated graphics directory to a different location (even on a different computer), the links will still work. You may make the links absolute as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Converting to MS Word

FileMerlin™ converts documents to the native .DOC file format for MS Word 97, 2000, XP (2002) or 2003. This lets you convert your files while taking advantage of the advanced formatting capabilities offered by these versions of MS Word, such as multi-level autonumbering, tables, footnotes and endnotes, multi-column layout, etc. FileMerlin™ converts these functions with full functionality intact. For example, paragraph autonumbers are converted as true revisable numbering, not just as literal text. The converted documents appear as if they were produced by MS Word in the first place, with fully functionality.

FileMerlin™ can also convert to Microsoft RTF format, also called the Rich Text Format, and to the Microsoft Office 2003 XML format. These are provided as alternatives to the native .DOC file format, and may be more suitable under certain conditions.

RTF is an intermediate file format developed by Microsoft, and is readable by all versions of Word, Microsoft Works as well as many non-Microsoft products. Hence, conversion to this format enables you to import your documents into programs other than just Microsoft Word.

The Microsoft Office 2003 XML format is supported only by Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, and is provided as an alternative to the Microsoft native (.DOC) and Microsoft Rich Text (.RTF) formats. You may find conversion to this format more suitable for some applications.

Unicode in MS Word

If converting documents containing primarily non-Latin character sets (such as Hebrew, Greek and Cyrillic), you should enable Unicode as the primary coding mode when converting to MS Word, as described later in the chapter on Customization. This enables MS Word to correctly render such characters with their associated accents (if any), as well as enforce right-to-left direction where required (e.g., for Hebrew).

Converting Graphics to Word

When documents containing graphics are converted to Word, FileMerlin™ by default embeds the graphics into the destination Word files. However, you may choose to keep the graphics in external files, and have links created in Word pointing to these files, as described later in the chapter on Customization. Note that .WPG graphics (from WordPerfect) are always converted as linked graphics, even if you do not opt for them to be linked.

When linked graphics are created, they may not be immediately viewable when the converted document is opened in Word. If you do not see the graphics, select "Edit" from the Word menu bar, then select "Links". You will see the graphics links listed. Select all, then click "Update". The graphics should then be visible. You may also opt to embed the graphics into the Word document at this point.

Location of Linked Graphics

If FileMerlin™ has to create new graphics files to link with a Word document as described in the previous section, it places them in a directory named the same as the source document followed by _g. The user need not necessarily be aware of this directory structure, since FileMerlin™ automatically places the correct links to the graphics files in the converted documents. You may also opt to have all linked graphics files placed in this directory, even those that would otherwise be usable from their original location.

The links to these external graphics files may be relative (i.e., with respect to the directory of the converted document) or absolute (i.e., include the complete path). By default, FileMerlin™ places relative links in the document files. This way, if you move the document file and its associated graphics directory to a different location (even on a different computer), the links will still work. You may make the links absolute, as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Converting to WordPerfect

FileMerlin™ converts documents to the native .WPD file format for WordPerfect 6 or higher, including all versions of Corel WordPerfect. Files produced by FileMerlin™ are also compatible with WordPerfect 6 for Dos.

This lets you convert your files while taking advantage of the advanced formatting capabilities offered by WordPerfect, such as multi-level autonumbering, tables, footnotes and endnotes, multi-column layout, etc. FileMerlin™ converts these functions with full functionality intact. For example, paragraph autonumbers are converted as true revisable numbering, not just as literal text. The converted documents appear as if they were produced by WordPerfect in the first place, with fully functionality.

Converting Graphics to WordPerfect

When documents containing graphics are converted to WordPerfect, FileMerlin™ keeps the graphics in external files, and creates links in WordPerfect to include these files. The graphics files are placed in a directory named the same as the source document followed by _g. The user need not necessarily be aware of this directory structure, since FileMerlin™ automatically places the correct links to the graphics files in the converted documents. You may also opt to have all linked graphics files placed in this directory, even those that would otherwise be usable from their original location.

The links to these external graphics files may be relative (i.e., with respect to the directory of the converted document) or absolute (i.e., include the complete path). By default, FileMerlin™ places relative links in the document files. This way, if you move the document file and its associated graphics directory to a different location (even on a different computer), the links will still work. You may make the links absolute, as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Converting to PDF

FileMerlin™ converts documents to PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format), including conversion of formatting and most layout. It includes support for Unicode fonts, whereby it can convert symbols and non-English character sets. It also converts documents containing graphics.

Advanced Operation

Command Line Options and Batch Mode

Most users prefer to run FileMerlin™ through its normal user interface described in earlier chapters. However, you may bypass this interface and run FileMerlin™ in the Batch mode if so desired. This is done by specifying the source and destination file names and types in the command line used to start FileMerlin™ , or via a parameters file.

Command Line Options

You may enter some options in the command line used to start up FileMerlin™ . These options should be separated from each other and from the FMN command by spaces. Each option is of the form keyword(value), and may be entered in upper or lower case. The keywords are:

SCR -- specifies the drive and path to be used for scratch files. For example, SCR(C:\TEMP\) creates scratch files on the C: drive, in the \TEMP\ directory.

SFRM -- specifies the source format, or you may use AUTO to have the source format recognized automatically if possible. Please see the Appendix for a list of source format keywords.

DFRM -- specifies the destination format. Please see the Appendix for a list of destination format keywords.

IN – specifies the input (source) file name(s) as described in the chapter on Source Files. For example, IN(A:*.WPD) specifies that all files on the A: drive having an extension of .WPD are to be converted.

OUT – specifies the output (destination) file name(s) as described in the chapter on Destination Files. For example, OUT(C:\My Web Files\*.HTM) indicates that converted files should be placed in the \My Web Files\ subdirectory on drive C, with the same name(s) as the corresponding source file(s) but extension .HTM.

CONF - specifies a user-created customization file. This is meant for advanced users who use InterScript for customization. For example, CONF(C:\BOB\MY.CUS) indicates that FileMerlin™ should customize from the file C:\BOB\MY.CUS.

PAR - specifies a file containing the startup options described above.

OPER - specifies an operation control file (see next section).

For example, to convert all MS Word 2000 documents with extension .DOC residing in directory D:\WordDocs to HTML documents in a directory c:\My Docs with extension .HTM, a sample set of options may be:

in(d:\WordDocs\*.doc) sfrm(msww8) out(c:\My Docs\*.htm) dfrm(html)

To do the same thing, but skip processing of source files that are not in Word 97/2000/XP format, the options would be:

in(d:\WordDocs\*.doc) sfrm(#msww8) out(c:\My Docs\*.htm) dfrm(html)

A special case arises if the argument itself (e.g., a file name) contains a closing parenthesis. In that case, the closing parenthesis must be entered as #( (i.e., the hash mark followed by an opening parenthesis). For example, to specify an input file named Copy(1) of original.doc, you would enter in(Copy(1#( of original.doc).

The Operation Control File

An operation control file is a text file which specifies any number of conversions for FileMerlin™ to perform. Each conversion is specified on two lines. The first line starts with the source keyword and is followed by one or more spaces, then the source file name (including path). The second line starts with the destination keyword and is followed by one or more spaces, then the destination file name (including path). Windows 95/98/2000/NT long file names are permitted, including those with embedded spaces. The file name(s) may not contain wild card characters. A single operation control file may specify any number of such conversions to be performed.

Batch Mode Operation

If an option is specified either via the command line or in a parameters file, the corresponding setting takes effect automatically when FileMerlin™ starts. If the options IN, OUT, SFRM and DFRM are all specified in this manner, FileMerlin™ runs in the batch mode. In this mode, the FileMerlin™ main window does not appear at all. Instead, the program's main window only informs you that it is running in the batch mode. Conversion of the specified file(s) begins automatically without any further user interaction as soon as FileMerlin™ starts up in the batch mode, and when all files have been converted the program returns to Windows.

When running in the batch mode, all FileMerlin™ settings other than those specified in the command line or through a parameters file are derived from their last saved values when FileMerlin™ was run in the interactive mode. This includes the settings to suppress user notifications and prompts. If you need to change these settings, run FileMerlin™ in the interactive mode, change the settings to their desired values, then either click Save Settings Now or exit the program with the Save Settings on Exit option enabled in the main window. These settings will then take effect when FileMerlin™ is subsequently run in the batch mode.

The AutoServe Function

FileMerlin™ provides an AutoServe function, which lets you specify input and output folders and then leave FileMerlin™ running in the background. Any time a file is placed in the input folder, it is converted as per the current FileMerlin™ options, and the converted file is placed in the output folder. This lets you run FileMerlin™ in the background, and files placed in the autoserve input folder are automatically converted as and when they arrive or are saved there.

Please note that the AutoServe function is only available under an AutoServe License. It is not available with the standard end-user license or any of the network licenses.

Using AutoServe

Before using the AutoServe function, you should set up FileMerlin™ options in the main window. The option settings in the main window also apply when FileMerlin™ is in AutoServe mode. Then, click the More Options button in the FileMerlin™ main window, and set up all the options in that window. They also apply when FileMerlin™ is in AutoServe mode.

Once the main window and More Options window options have been set, you can control the AutoServe function itself by clicking the AutoServe button in the More Options window. The AutoServe configuration window appears, as shown below.

The AutoServe feature is initially turned off, so most of the controls in this window are disabled. Check the Enable AutoServe box to enable these controls. You may then specify exactly how you wish the AutoServe function to work:

Sample Time - In this field, you may enter the frequency with which FileMerlin™ should check the AutoServe Input folder for new files. Any value greater than 1 second may be entered.

AutoServe Input - In the Input field, you may enter the AutoServe Input Folder path, and filename template using "*" and "?" wild card characters if necessary. Or, you may click the Input button and navigate to a folder to select it. Files placed in this folder that match the specification are auto converted.

AutoServe Output - In the Output field, you may enter the AutoServe Output Folder path, and filename template using "*" and "?" wild card characters if necessary. Or, you may click the Output button and navigate to a folder to select it. Note that all destination file name options (such as ">" and "<" characters for numeric sequence, and destination file names of the form *.*.ext) described earlier are also available in this specification. Auto converted files will be placed in this folder, and named as per this destination specification.

Minimize FileMerlin™ - Check the Minimize FileMerlin window during AutoServe box if you do not wish the FileMerlin™ main window to be displayed when FileMerlin™ is in AutoServe mode. If this button is checked, FileMerlin™ minimizes itself and appears only in the task bar when in AutoServe mode. You can, at any time, bring it up again from the task bar.

Show FileMerlin™ - Check the Show FileMerlin window during file conversion box to have the FileMerlin™ main window and progress meter appear when FileMerlin™ converts a file in AutoServe mode.

Once the AutoServe features have been set, click OK to close the AutoServe dialog box, then OK in the More Options dialog box. FileMerlin™ will now enter the AutoServe mode, and will keep looking for files to be converted in the AutoServe Input folder.

The AutoServe status persists through different FileMerlin™ sessions. In other words, if you exit FileMerlin™ with AutoServe enabled, it will automatically enter AutoServe mode when started the next time.

To turn off the AutoServe function, uncheck the Enable AutoServe box in the AutoServe dialog box. FileMerlin™ then reverts to its normal mode of operation.

Processed Files

Once a file in the AutoServe Input folder has been converted, its name is changed to reflect that it has been processed, but the file is not deleted. This way you do not lose your source file(s). As and when needed, you may delete these files or move them elsewhere depending on your requirements.

Basic Customization

FileMerlin™ has extensive customization features that are available when you click Customize . The customization interface appears as follows:

Select one of the tabs in this panel to customize the corresponding features. Each of these tabs is described in the sections that follow.

Web Colors Tab

FileMerlin™ gives the user many ways to change and customize the look of the converted Web Document.

Background Color/Pattern Options

FileMerlin™ gives the option to incorporate a background color or pattern into the converted HTML document. If Color or Pattern is selected, you may click Choose Color or Pattern to make your selection. The selected color/pattern then appears in the preview window. FileMerlin™ includes many patterns from which to choose, or you may select any other background image file.

Please also see "Texture and Colors" in the chapter Embellishing your web pages for a discussion of how the background texture image file is encoded into the converted HTML files, and what precautions to observe if you plan to eventually move the converted HTML files to a different location (e.g., to a web server). Note also that you may override the coding of the texture image file name in the HTML files from the Miscellaneous tab as described later in the chapter on Customization.

Document Colors

FileMerlin™ allows the user to completely customize the colors used by different components of the converted HTML web page, by overriding the colors in the source document. The color patches display the chosen colors, and the preview window displays the current color scheme. For example, the preview window with a background pattern and custom colors selected may appear as follows:

Text Attributes

FileMerlin™ allows the user to modify the appearance of text enhancements (such as underline or boldface). This can be done by selecting an option in the drop down menu for the desired enhancement. If the option to replace or keep and add is selected, use the drop down box on the right to provide additional information. If a color is desired for any text enhancement, check the "use color" option. A color selection dialog box appears, and a color can then be selected. Any change that is made within these options will affect all occurrences of the enhancement within the source document.

Margins Tab

You may increase (or decrease) the left and right margins when converting a document by entering the desired offsets in the Left Margin Offset and Right Margin Offset fields.

Further, FileMerlin™ lets you override any margin setting in the source document. To do this, check the box on the left and enter the desired (override) value on the right. The color coded diagram serves a guide for the different margins. Note that the browser may ignore the right margin setting if the HTML Tab option Let browser override and adjust right margin is checked.

All values entered in this dialog box use the units selected from the drop down box in the upper left corner. The possible units are:

inches - Specifies value in inches.

cm - Specifies value in centimeters.

mm - Specifies value in millimeters.

points - Specifies value in printer points (1/72 inch).

twips - Specifies value in "twips" (twentieth of a point, i.e. 1/1440 inch).

If the units selection is changed, all values change automatically to reflect the new unit of measurement.

HTML Tab

The options within this tab allow the user to override and control the browser settings to optimize the appearance of the resulting HTML document.

Force fixed-spacing font - Checking this box forces the output HTML file to use a fixed-spacing font. When converting to Modernized EDGAR for SEC filings, this option is useful if converting a document that uses a fixed-spacing font and relies on character spacing for alignment purposes. Do not check this box if your source document uses a proportionally-spaced font.

Let browser override heading styles - Checking this option causes the browser to use its own default character styling for headings in a document. If this option is checked, then FileMerlin™ generates an <H> tag with the appropriate level for paragraphs that have a heading style. If this box is not checked, the <P> tag is used for all paragraphs, including heading-styled paragraphs.

Let browser override line styles - Checking this box causes the browser to ignore the style and thickness of horizontal lines in the original document, and instead use the browser's own native style.

Let browser override text border settings - Checking this box causes the browser to ignore the style and thickness of text (character) borders in the original document, and instead use the browser's own native style.

Let browser override paragraph border settings - Checking this box causes the browser to ignore the style and thickness of paragraph borders in the original document, and instead use the browser's own native style.

Let browser override table border settings - Check this box to let the browser override the table border style, and use its own settings. This may result in a table appearance better optimized for viewing on a screen.

Let browser override table columns width - Normally, when converting tables to HTML, FileMerlin™ maintains the column widths as they were in the original document. You may check this box to ignore the original widths and have the column widths determined by the browser instead.

Let browser override cell padding - Check this box to let the browser override the cell padding values, and use its own settings. This may result in a table appearance better optimized for viewing on a screen.

Let browser adjust left margin - Checking this box lets the browser maximize screen usage by allowing content flow from the left edge of the browser window (i.e., it eliminates the blank left margin). This is the recommended setting, and is also the factory-shipped default. If this box is not checked, the browser displays the blank left margin to match the setting in the original document. In this mode, margin settings may be adjusted (see "Margins Tab").

Let browser adjust right margin -- Checking this box lets the browser maximize screen usage by allowing content flow all the way to the right edge of the browser window. This is the recommended setting, and is also the factory-shipped default. If this box is not checked, the browser displays the document with its original line lengths, leaving blank space at the right of the screen if necessary. In this mode, margin settings may be adjusted (see "Margins Tab").

Let browser adjust page width - Checking this box lets the browser adjust the displayed document width to match the browser window size. This results in reformatting of the document, which may therefore appear quite different from the source document. If this box is not checked, the page width is fixed to match the original document, and is not dependent on the width of the browser window.

Regenerate hyperlinked table of contents - Check this box to have FileMerlin create a hyperlinked table of contents, whether or not a table of contents was created in the original document. This is particularly suitable for informational web sites. If this box is unchecked, a table of contents is created in the same format as in the original document. However, this assumes that one was created in the original document, and hyperlinks are generated only if they existed in the original document.

Regenerate hyperlinked index - Check this box to have FileMerlin create a hyperlinked index, whether or not an index was created in the original document. This is particularly suitable for informational web sites. If this box is unchecked, an index is created in the same format as in the original document. However, this assumes that one was created in the original document, and hyperlinks are generated only if they existed in the original document.

Regenerate hyperlinked footnote tags - Check this box to have FileMerlin regenerate bidirectionally hyperlinked footnote tags.

Regenerate hyperlinked endnote tags - Check this box to have FileMerlin regenerate bidirectionally hyperlinked endnote tags.

Use Horizontal lines to show page breaks - Checking this box inserts a horizontal line in the HTML file to represent a page break.

Allow .BMP graphics - Normally FileMerlin™ assumes that only .JPG or .GIF graphics files are acceptable for linking with HTML output. Other graphics types are converted to one of these two formats. If you check this option box, FileMerlin™ will permit .BMP graphics as well.

Allow .WMF graphics - Normally FileMerlin™ assumes that only .JPG or .GIF graphics files are acceptable for linking with HTML output. Other graphics types are converted to one of these two formats. If you check this option box, FileMerlin™ will permit .WMF graphics as well.

Display Images in their Native Size - Normally, FileMerlin™ produces HTML code instructing the browser to resize images (if necessary) to match their size in the source document. This is generally the desired behavior. However, the resizing process sometimes compromises the quality of the image, and the resulting resized image may appear to be jagged or of poor quality. In such situations, you may check this option box. When this box is checked, images are displayed without resizing, thus improving their display quality.

Use Numeric Codes for Symbols - Symbols and special characters may be coded in HTML documents using mnemonics or numeric value. If this option is checked, numeric codes are used, otherwise mnemonics are used.

Consolidate styles - FileMerlin™ uses cascaded HTML styles as defined in HTML version 3 and higher, to produce highly formatted HTML files that replicate the formatting of the original word processing document as much as possible. Checking this box lets FileMerlin define these styles in the HTML header and reuse them again and again, resulting in smaller files that download faster. This works very well with browsers like Internet Explorer. However, NetScape does not currently support style definition in headers. To accommodate NetScape this box should be unchecked. However, this results in significantly larger HTML files that take longer to download and display. When shipped from the factory, this box is unchecked to accommodate Netscape. This box may be checked if the resulting HTML files are intended to be viewed primarily with Internet Explorer.

Allow Tricky HTML - HTML does not provide some of the page layout and formatting functions supported in advanced word processors such as Microsoft Word. For example, HTML does not provide any tab codes. To compensate, FileMerlin™ can use fairly tricky HTML to make a converted HTML file look as close as possible to the original word processing document while still maintaining HTML and browser functionality such as screen resizing. This tricky HTML produces very elegant results when viewed in a modern browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However some older browsers, or other applications that read HTML, may have trouble with such tricky HTML. You may uncheck this option box to suppress tricky HTML. If this box is unchecked, FileMerlin™ produces simpler HTML, but the resulting formatting and layout in the converted HTML files may not resemble that in the original word processing documents as closely.

Maintain line breaks if possible - If this box is checked, then soft line breaks in the original document are converted as hard breaks so that, given sufficient screen width, lines in the converted file break at the same locations as they did in the original document. If this box is unchecked, line breaks in the converted file are determined by the browser, and may not occur at the exact same locations as in the original document.

Maintain pagination if possible - If this box is checked, then soft page breaks in the original document are converted as hard page breaks, to reflect the same pagination as in the original document.

Convert Text Boxes to Endnotes – HTML does not support text boxes the way some word processors like Word and WordPerfect do. So if your source document contains text boxes, FileMerlin™ extracts the contents of the text box and places it inline with the document text at the location where the text box is anchored in the original document. Please note that this may not necessarily be the same as the location where the text box is visible. Checking this box converts the text box content to an endnote referenced at the point in the document where the text box is anchored. The content of the text box therefore appears as an endnote at the end of the document. This is suitable to prevent the text box content from disrupting the flow of your document. Please note that this option should not be used if your document contains text boxes in headers, footers, footnotes or endnotes, since endnotes may not be referenced within those document components.

Text Tab

The options within this tab allow the user to specify certain aspects of conversions that involve simple text file formats.

Convert Text Boxes to Endnotes – Plain text files do not support text boxes the way some word processors like Word and WordPerfect do. So if your source document contains text boxes, FileMerlin™ extracts the contents of the text box and places it inline with the document text at the location where the text box is anchored in the original document. Please note that this may not necessarily be the same as the location where the text box is visible. Checking this box converts the text box content to an endnote referenced at the point in the document where the text box is anchored. The content of the text box therefore appears as an endnote at the end of the document. This is suitable to prevent the text box content from disrupting the flow of your document. Please note that this option should not be used if your document contains text boxes in headers, footers, footnotes or endnotes, since endnotes may not be referenced within those document components.

Source Code page - This option may be used to specify the code page (usually the Dos code page) of text (or text-type) source files being converted. In the U.S., Dos text (or similar) files produced by legacy word processors use code page 437. European applications may used code page 850 or some other code page. ANSI files, which are similar to text files, use the ANSI code page (Windows code page 1152). The code page determines how extended characters (i.e., characters whose codes lie outside the range of printable ASCII characters) should be interpreted.

Destination Code Page - This option may be used to specify the destination code page an application should assume when reading the text file produced by FileMerlin™ . You may select from several popular code pages and Unicode formats. The ASCII (no extended characters) code page is the safest and most generic. The ANSI (CP1252) code page is used by most Windows applications, while the Dos code page 437 is used by traditional Dos applications in the U.S. You may also select from several other Dos code pages that cater to different regions of the world, and from various versions of UniCode.

Line Ending convention - This option may be used to specify the convention to be used for line endings in the text output file. This lets you adapt the text file to Dos/Windows, Macintosh or Unix-based systems.

Page break convention - This option may be used to specify how hard page breaks should be output to the text file. Hard page breaks are those deliberately introduced by the user (e.g., at the start of each new chapter). Soft page breaks, on the other hand, are introduced automatically by the word processor as part of normal pagination, and these are not output.

Append EOF - Many older applications rely on a special end-of-file character (ASCII code 26) to mark the end of a text file. Modern applications generally do not require this, and some modern applications may actually display this character as a rectangular box character. FileMerlin™ gives you a choice of whether or not to include this character in the output. If the text files are intended to be processed by older (specially Dos-based) applications, it may be a good idea to include this character (check the box). If not, you may leave this box unchecked.

Formatted tables borders/lines - Normally, when producing formatted text tables, FileMerlin™ derives the table and cell border lines from the source document. You may selective suppress these border lines by using the check boxes in this area of the customization dialog box.

Formatted text - Most modern documents are produced using proportionally spaced fonts with adjustable microspacing and kerning, as well as varying font sizes. However, text files do not harbor any concept of font size or adjustable spacing. In fact, there is no inherent concept of character size, just character counts. That is why plain text files are best viewed or printed using a fixed-spacing font such as Courier. However, this causes a problem with issues such as alignment and line lengths due to inherent inconsistencies introduced when converting from proportional spacing with varying font sizes to fixed spacing with a fixed font size. This is most apparent in the text line length, and spacing of tabs and indents. By default, FileMerlin™ calculates the output line length and tab spacing based on the input line font size, margins and tab settings. You can alter this behavior to suit your liking by using the customization options in this portion of the customization dialog box.

Fixed characters/line - Check this box to force the output line length to the specified number of characters. If this box is not checked, line length is determined by the font size and margin settings in the input file.

Fixed characters/inch - Check this box to base the output file line length as well as tab and indent spacing on the specified fixed character pitch. If this box is unchecked, this spacing is automatically scaled based on the ratio of output and input line lengths.

Field Separator - Use this field to specify the field separator when extracting tabular data to a separated/delimited text file format. The separator character is placed between fields in a record. It is not placed after the last field. The separator most commonly used is a comma, however you may enter any character of your choice (such as vertical bar, backslash, tilde, etc.). You may also enter the word tab to output to the tab-separated format. The field separator should not be left blank.

Field Delimiter - Use this field to specify a field delimiter character when extracting tabular data to a separated/delimited text file format. The delimiter character is placed at the start and end of each field in a record. The delimiter most commonly used is the double-quote, but single-quote is also common. You may leave this field blank, in which case no field delimiter is used.

Replace .. in data - If a field delimiter is used, then something has to be done about the same delimiter character appearing within the data. If a delimiter is not used, something has to be done about the separator character appearing within the data. Whichever the case may be, use this field to specify what that special character should be translated to. You may enter any replacement string of up to four characters. A blank string is allowed, in which case the special character is simply ignored if it appears as part of data.

Fields Tab

The options within this tab allow the user to specify how field data are converted to destination formats such as MS Word which support field functionality. Normally, FileMerlin™ converts field data to truly reviseable field codes. This lets the destination word processor update the field data if necessary. However, sometimes you may not want to permit such updating, specially since the update may be automatic. In that case, you may check the appropriate checkboxes on this screen to have the corresponding field data transferred as literal text instead of as a reviseable field. It is permissible to have some field data transferred in revisable form while other fields are converted to literal text.

MS Word Tab

The options within this tab let you specify certain features about how documents are converted to MS Word.

Create external (linked) graphics - When converting from other file formats to MS Word, FileMerlin™ normally embeds graphics into the destination Word documents. You may check this box to produce linked graphics instead. In the linked mode, graphics are placed in external files, and a link is created in the Word document pointing to these external files.

Use Unicode Character Coding - Check this option if you are converting documents containing primarily non-Latin based characters, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Cyrillic and Greek. Setting this option enables MS Word to use international language settings so that these characters and associated accents (if any) are rendered correctly. Further, checking this box enables MS Word to implement right-to-left language direction wherever required (e.g., for Hebrew).

Use true autonumbering - This box is checked by default, in which case FileMerlin™ converts autonumbering to truly reviseable paragraph autonumber codes. This way, the numbering in the converted document is automatically updated if the converted document is later edited. However, this restricts you to the autonumbering styles and schemes available in MS Word, which may not always accurately represent the number formatting in the original document. By unchecking this option box, you can convert autonumbers to literal text that exactly resembles the autonumbering format in the original document. Doing so results in numbering which will not change if the converted document is later edited.

PowerPoint Tab

The options within this tab let you specify certain features about how PowerPoint presentations are converted.

Layout Scale - In this field, enter the scaling factor for slides layout. Since slides are meant for presentation, they are usually produced in a size larger than desirable for inclusion into documents. You may effect an automatic reduction as part of the conversion process by specifying a scaling factor in this field. The default value is 65%. You may enter any value from 10% to 250%. Note that values above 100% are magnification, not reduction.

Content Scale - ix 'PowerPoint:Scale:Content' ix 'MS PowerPoint:Scale:Content' ix 'Scaling:in PowerPoint'}In this field, enter the scaling factor for slides content (text, graphics, etc.). Since slides are meant for presentation, they are usually produced in a size larger than desirable for inclusion into documents. You may effect an automatic reduction as part of the conversion process by specifying a scaling factor in this field. It is a good idea to reduce the content slightly more than the layout. This prevents problems with content overflow if it does not fit into the scaled layout. The default value of content scaling is 60%. You may enter any value from 10% to 250%. Note that values above 100% are magnification, not reduction.

Page Break between Slides - This box is checked by default, which means that FileMerlin™ inserts a page break between slides when converting them. Uncheck this box if you do not want these page breaks.

Slide/Note Conversion Mode - This list box item lets you select the presentation components you wish to include in the converted file, i.e., only slides, only notes or slides and notes. If both, slides and notes are included, you may specify their order and placement as well.

WordPerfect Tab

The options within this tab let you specify how certain features are converted to WordPerfect.

Convert Table of Lists Entries - In WordPerfect, Table of Lists entries also show up as regular text. This is often not desirable, since these entries are typically not displayed in the source word processor. So by default FileMerlin™ does not convert these entries. You may force conversion of these entries by checking this box. This preserves functionality for automatic generation of a Table of Lists, but inserts visible text into the converted file that was not visible in the source document.

Convert Table of Contents Entries - In WordPerfect, Table of Contents entries also show up as regular text. This is often not desirable, since these entries are typically not displayed in the source word processor. So by default FileMerlin™ does not convert these entries. You may force conversion of these entries by checking this box. This preserves functionality for automatic generation of a Table of Contents, but inserts visible text into the converted file that was not visible in the source document.

Summary Tab

FileMerlin™ picks up HTML header meta tag information (such as document title, summary or keywords) from the corresponding document summary fields in the source document. Use this tab to enter default values for these fields if the corresponding information is missing in the source file.

Title - The title of the document appears in the title bar at the top of the browser window, and also identifies the web page for the Search Engines.

Keywords - FileMerlin™ allows the user to input keyword meta tags within the HTML code. These tags do not appear in the browser window but are visible to Search Engines. The keywords used should be words that identify the content of the web page.

Summary - FileMerlin™ allows the user to input a document summary for meta tags within the HTML code. This description does not appear in the browser window but is visible to Search Engines.

Miscellaneous Tab

FileMerlin™ has extra customizing features under this tab.

Special treatment of footnotes - Click on the down-arrow to specify how footnotes should be treated. You may convert them as footnotes, suppress them entirely, convert them to regular text at the point of reference, convert them to endnotes or to annotations.

Special treatment of endnotes - Click on the down-arrow to specify how endnotes should be treated. You may convert them as endnotes, suppress them entirely, convert them to regular text at the point of reference, convert them to footnotes or to annotations.

Special treatment of annotations - Click on the down-arrow to specify how annotations should be treated. You may convert them as annotations, suppress them entirely, convert them to regular text at the point of reference, convert them to footnotes or to endnotes.

Special treatment of headers - Click on the down-arrow to specify how headers should be treated. You may convert them as headers, suppress them entirely, or convert them to regular text at the point in the document where they are defined.

Special treatment of footers - Click on the down-arrow to specify how footers should be treated. You may convert them as footers, suppress them entirely, or convert them to regular text at the point in the document where they are defined.

Normalize revision-inserted content - Checking this box has the effect of converting revision-inserted content as normal content. This is like "accepting" or "merging" revision-insert tracking in a document.

Remove revision-deleted content - Checking this box results in removal of revision-deleted content This is like "accepting" or "merging" revision-delete tracking in a document.

Remove overstruck text - Checking this box removes text that has been overstruck.

Replace Page # by ___ - Check this box to replace the page number code (e.g., in a header or footer) by a placeholder string (e.g., "-#-"). You may want to do this to suppress page numbering but preserve the layout of a header or footer. Enter the desired placeholder string in the filed next to this option.

Override background image filename - Check this box to override the file name of the background image, and enter the desired path and file name in the field on the right. If you override the background image file name in this manner, it is your responsibility to place the desired file by that name in the location that you specify. Note also that if this option is used, the background texture image file name will be encoded in the converted HTML file exactly as entered here, without checking for whether or not the file pre-exists in the destination directory.

Override font name - Check this box to override the font used in the original document, and enter the name of the desired font in the field on the right.

Use complete absolute path for graphics files - Check this box to encode the complete absolute path of graphics files into the converted document. This is useful if the location of the converted document may be later changed without moving the graphics files. On the other hand, if this box is not checked, then the ""relative path"" is written to the output file, i.e., the path to the graphics file relative to the output document. This is particularly suitable if the graphics files are placed in a folder which is itself located in the same folder as the converted document. In this case, if the folder containing the converted file(s) is moved, the graphics files move with it and the document-to-graphics linkage is not broken.

Always copy graphics files to graphics folder - When converting documents containing linked graphics, FileMerlin™ does not create new graphics files unless they are required in a different file format. If the graphics file can be used from its original location, then the converted document links to that file in that location. You may change this behavior by checking this option box. Doing so causes all linked graphics files to be copied to the destination graphics folder, even if those files were usable from their original location.

Right Margin Justification - This option lets you override the right margin justification settings of the document being converted.

Fill character to use for symbols that cannot be represented - In this field, you may enter a dummy character that will be used to mark symbols that could not be represented in the converted HTML document.

Customize Dialog Buttons

At the bottom of the customize dialog box are several buttons. Each of their functions are described below.

Defaults - Clicking on this button resets FileMerlin™ customization options to their factory-shipped defaults.

Save Profile - This button lets you save the current customization settings from all tabs in a profile file. This file may later be loaded to install the exact same customization settings.

Load Profile - This option loads customization settings which were previously saved by clicking Save Profile . Several profile files are included with FileMerlin™ as factory-shipped, and have the extension .PRF. You may load any of these profiles, modify it and save it under a different name to precisely customize FileMerlin™ for your conversions.

Merge Profile - This option merges the current customization settings with those that were previously saved by clicking Save Profile . The resultant new settings may be saved under a different name to precisely customize FileMerlin™ for your conversions.

Apply Now - Clicking this button ensures that the user-defined customization settings take effect in the next conversion.

Cancel - Click on this button to cancel any changes you have made to the customization settings since they were last saved.

OK - Click to save the customization settings and exit the customization menu. The settings take effect in the next conversion.

Font Customization

FileMerlin™ lets you translate fonts on the fly as part of the conversion process. This is particularly useful when converting from legacy word processors, such as Dos-based word processing programs, where font names do not match Windows font names. In this case, you can build a translation table which translates the original font names to appropriate Windows font names. This feature may also be used to replace fonts.

The font translation table is implemented in the file FONTXLT.TXT located in the FileMerlin™ folder. This is a simple text file, in which each line of text represents a font translation. Each line is divided into 3 fields (the third field is optiional). These fields are separated by vertical post (|) characters. These fields are:

Original font name to be translated

New (Windows) font name

(optional) - B and/or I, denoting bold and/or italics translated font.

For example, a font translation file may look like this:

Courier | Courier New

Courier Bold | Courier New | B

Courier Oblique | Courier New | I

Courier Bold Oblique | Courier New | BI

Helvetica | Arial

Helvetica Bold | Arial | B

Helvetica Oblique | Arial | I

Helvetica Bold Oblique | Arial | BI

Times Roman | Times New Roman

Times Roman Bold | Times New Roman | B

Times Roman Italic | Times New Roman | I

Times Roman Bold Italic | Times New Roman | BI

Advanced Customization

Advanced Customization is done through a powerful document description language known as InterScript™. This chapter describes how to utilize this customization. Basically, you save InterScript™ commands in a customization file, then reference this file during conversions. The InterScript™ commands themselves are available in a separate document entitled InterScript Document Description Language.

To customize conversions using InterScript™, click the Advanced button in the FileMerlin™ main window. The Advanced Customization using InterScript window appears, as shown below:

Then enter a file name (with its folder path) in the Filename field, or click the Select File button and navigate to the desired folder and/or file using a dialog box. If the specified file does not exist, it is created, otherwise the existing file is opened. The customization file dialog box then appears as shown below:

Enter the desired InterScript™ customization commands between the curly parentheses in the main field of this window, or edit the existing commands appearing in there. When done, click OK . Subsequent conversions will be performed with the specified customization.

Note that the customization settings persist when you close FileMerlin™ . They take effect automatically the next time you start FileMerlin™ . To cancel or change the customization, change or edit the customization file in the Advanced Customization using InterScript window. Click the Unselect File button to unselect a customization file, or the Delete File button to unselect and delete it.

Reference

Glossary

This glossary defines the meanings of some technical terms, particularly in the context of their usage in word processing conversions. The terms are arranged alphabetically.

Adjustable Column Break - Same as Soft Column Break.

Adjustable Line Break - Same as Soft Line Break.

Adjustable Line Ending - Same as Soft Line Ending.

Adjustable Page Break - Same as Soft Page Break.

Adjustable Return - Same as Soft Return.

Alignment - Refers to the manner in which text is positioned with respect to reference points on a page. Usually, it refers to horizontal positioning. See Line Alignment and Tab Alignment.

Alternating Page Offset - See Page Offset.

Annotation - See Comment.

ANSI - An acronym for American National Standards Institute. This standard defines how printable characters (and some elementary control codes) may be represented within a computer, including 7-bit and 8-bit codes. Windows uses the ANSI character as one of its code pages for representing characters and symbols.

ASCII - An acronym for American Standard Code for Interchange of Information. This standard defines how printable characters (and some elementary control codes) may be represented within a computer using 7 bits. Files that are based strictly on this code are called ASCII files.

Automatic Line Height - A formatting function which indicates that the height of a line of text is not fixed, but is adjusted automatically depending on the font size(s) used in that line. This is also called floating line height or variable line height.

Automatic Paragraph Numbering - See Outline Tag.

Automatic Section Numbering - See Outline Tag.

Bit - The smallest unit of storage in a computer, a bit is a memory element that may be either 0 or 1. Eight memory bits may be organized into one byte which can hold one character (letter) of text.

Body Text - Refers to the main document text, not including the running headers, footers or page numbers.

Byte - A unit of storage within a computer. The smallest unit of storage is a bit. A byte contains 8 bits. One character of text is usually stored in one byte.

Comment - In the context of word processing documents, a comment is text that is entered at a specific point in the document, but which does not print as part of the document. Rather, it serves as a "post-it note" for the typist or user. It is also called annotation or hidden text.

Control Code - Any code found in a document file that does not directly translate to a printable character. Control codes may be used to specify document formatting such as line alignment, print enhancements such as underlining or boldfacing, or a wide variety of other functions.

Decimal Tab - See Tab Alignment.

Discretionary Hyphen - Same as Soft Hyphen.

Dos Text File - Same as an ASCII file.

Endnote Reference Tag - The mechanism used to mark a reference to an endnote in the body text of a document. Generally, it consists of the endnote number formatted in a special way. For example, it may be superscripted, or enclosed in square parentheses. The part of the tag before the endnote number is called the tag prolog, while the part after the number is called the tag epilog. The endnote number itself is called the endnote identifier.

Floating Line Height - See Automatic Line Height.

Footer - Refers to text at the bottom of a page which is repeated for every page. Often this text includes a page number. The footer may be different for odd and even pages.

Footer Margin - The gap between the last line of body text and the first line of a running footer at the bottom of a page.

Footnote Reference Tag - Like Endnote Reference Tag, except it refers to a footnote.

Format Ruler - Same as Ruler.

Hanging Indent - A form of paragraph indentation, where the first line of the paragraph is set out and the rest of the paragraph indented in. For example, the paragraphs in this glossary use hanging indentation.

Hard Codes - Codes which are intentionally introduced and not removed or moved around by the word processing program in the course of editing or formatting a document, unless so intended by the user.

Hard Column Break - A code to force text to a new column.

Hard Line Break - A code to force text to a new line.

Hard Line Ending - Same as Hard Line Break.

Hard Page Break - A code to force text to a new page.

Hard Return - Same as Hard Line Ending.

Hard Space - A space between words that may not be adjusted for right margin justification, and where a line break may not occur.

Header - Like footer, except it refers to text at the top of a page.

Hidden Text - See Comment.

Intelligent ASCII - Same as Smart ASCII.

Latent Hyphen - Same as Soft Hyphen.

Left Indent - A temporary change in the left margin, often only for the duration of one paragraph. It may be measured in character positions (e.g., 5 characters), or absolute units (e.g., half inch).

Left Margin - Refers to the gap between the left edge of the paper, and the leftmost printed position on a page. It may be measured in character positions (e.g., 10 characters), or absolute units (e.g., 1 inch).

Line Alignment - Refers to the manner in which a line of text is positioned between the left and right margins (or between the left and right column limits in the column mode). The line may be centered, left-aligned, right-aligned or fully justified.

Mail-Merge Code - A special code that may be inserted in a document to cause information to be inserted there at print time from a different data file. Usually the data file would be organized into records, with each record having several fields. Each field may have a name, or it may be referred to by number. Mail-Merge codes are generally used to print customized copies of the same letter (called form letter or boiler-plate letter) with variable information for each letter being obtained from the different records in the data file.

Multi-level Superscript - See nested superscript/subscript.

Multi-level Subscript - See nested superscript/subscript.

Nested Superscript/Subscript - A superscript or subscript applied to another superscript or subscript. Note that ideally superscript and subscript are semantically different functions. One does not cancel the other. This distinction is sometimes maintained by word processors that provide sophisticated equation editors, but is generally lost in word processors that provide only simple superscript and subscript functions.

Newspaper-style Columns - Same as Snaking Columns.

Note Reference Tag - See Footnote Reference Tag and Endnote Reference Tag.

Numeric Space - A space character, whose width is equal to that of a decimal digit. It is used with proportionally space fonts to ensure that numbers separated by spaces line up correctly.

Outline Tag - A number tag generated automatically by a word processing program, and is used to automatically number sections, chapters, and other divisions of a document. As sections are added or deleted, these numbers adjust automatically. It is also referred to as automatic paragraph numbering and automatic section numbering.

Page Offset - A static left margin generally applied throughout a document, which adds on to any left margin specifications at different points in the document. In some cases the page offset is used to provide room for binding the printed document. If the page offset is different for odd and even pages (as in the case of binding a document printed double-sided), it is sometimes called an alternating page offset.

Paragraph Indent - See Paragraph Margin.

Paragraph Margin - Refers to the position of the first character of the first line of a paragraph. It may be more (first line indented) or less (first line outdented) than the left margin for the rest of the paragraph.

Parallel Columns - Columns containing blocks of information, the blocks related horizontally. The logical flow of text in such columns starts with the topmost block in the first column, then the topmost block in the second column, and so on till the topmost block in the last column. The flow then moves on to the second block in the first column, second block in the second column and so on. They are also called Synchronized columns and Related columns. If the blocks are protected from page breaks, they are also called Protected Parallel Columns.

Pause Code - A code inserted in a document to pause printing at that point (e.g., to change printwheels). Not all word processing programs support this function.

Print Enhancements - Refers to print functions such as underlining, boldfacing, italics, superscripts, subscripts, etc.

Related Columns - Same as Parallel Columns.

Redline - See Revision Mode.

Revision Mode - A special editing mode available in some word processors, which allows revisions to be identified. In this mode, inserted text is displayed or printed using a print enhancement function (such as italics), while text that is deleted is not really removed but displayed or printed using a different print enhancement (such as strikeout). The latter is sometimes called redlined text.

Ribbon Text - A special form of ASCII format which stores hard returns only at the ends of paragraphs. Soft returns at the end of each line are not stored. Each paragraph in this format is one single long line.

Right Indent - A temporary change in the right margin, often only for the duration of one paragraph. It may be measured in character positions (e.g., 5 characters), or absolute units (e.g., half inch). This is not used as commonly as the left indent, and many word processing programs do not support it.

Right Margin - Refers to the position of the rightmost printed position on a page. Most word processing programs specify it as measured from the left edge of the paper (e.g., WordPerfect 4.1/4.2, WordStar or DisplayWrite). However, some programs specify it as the gap between the rightmost printed position and the right edge of the page (e.g., WordPerfect 5.0/5.1 and Microsoft Word).

Ruler - A formatting element in a document which determines the layout of paragraphs of text which follow. The ruler, which is often displayed on the screen when a document is edited, generally determines such formatting functions as the left and right margins, the location and kind of tab stops, and paragraph indentation.

Smart ASCII - A mode of ASCII conversion signifying that when converting an ASCII file to a word processing program format, the conversion software attempts to recover formatting that is otherwise lost in an ASCII file. By using statistical properties of documents in general, features such as soft vs. hard line endings, tabs, indents, centering and justification may largely be recovered. This is also referred to as Document-oriented ASCII.

Snaking Columns - Columns in which text flows from the top to bottom of one column, then moves on to the top of the next column, and so on until it reaches the bottom of the last column. At that point, it moves on to the top of the first column on the next page.

Soft Codes - Codes which are not permanent, but may be removed, moved around or changed automatically by the word processing program in the course of editing or formatting a document.

Soft Column Break - A code introduced automatically by the word processing program when one column (in snaking or newspaper-style column mode) fills up and text has to continue in the next one. It adjusts automatically during editing or formatting.

Soft Hyphen - A hyphen introduced to break up a word at the end of a line. This code may be removed or changed automatically by the word processing program in the course of editing or formatting the document. If document editing causes this code to no longer be at the end of a line, it becomes a dormant or latent soft hyphen.

Soft Line Break - A line ending code produced by wrap-around. It adjusts automatically during editing or formatting.

Soft Line Ending - Same as Soft Line Break.

Soft Page Break - A page break introduced automatically by the word processing program when one page fills up and text has to continue on the next one. It adjusts automatically during editing or formatting.

Soft Return - Same as Soft Line Ending.

Soft Spaces - Spaces introduced between words by a word processing program to justify the right margin. They adjust automatically during editing or formatting.

Structured Document - A document broken up into sections and subsections. Certain formatting functions are naturally associated with document structure, for example automatic section numbering, inclusion of section titles into a table of contents, automatic section indentation, etc.

Suspended Hyphen - Same as Soft Hyphen.

Syllable Hyphen - Same as Soft Hyphen.

Synchronized Columns - Same as Parallel Columns.

Tab Alignment - Refers to the manner in which text lines up against tab stops. It may be left-aligned (as in normal tabs), centered or right-aligned at the tab position. A special mode of alignment, called character alignment, may be used to align a specific character with a tab position. Decimal Tabs are a special case of character-aligned tabs, in which case the alignment character is a decimal point.

Tag - A formatted identifier produced automatically by the word processing program for special functions. For example, a footnote reference tag identifies a reference to a footnote. An outline tag identifies the start of a new automatically numbered paragraph in the outline mode.

Text Enhancements - See Print Enhancements.

Top Margin - Generally refers to the gap between the top of the paper and the topmost printed line on the page. If the page includes a running header, most word processing programs define the top margin as the gap between the top edge of the paper and the first header line. A notable exception to this convention is WordStar which defines the top margin as the gap between the top edge of the paper and the first line of body text (excluding the header).

Variable Line Height - See Automatic Line Height.

Format Keywords

This appendix lists the keywords used to represent file formats. You need these keywords when converting in the batch mode, or when specifying sections in customization files.

Source Format Keywords

AUTO - Auto dectect

2WS1 - WordStar-2000 Release 1

2WS2 - WordStar-2000 Release 2

2WS3 - WordStar-2000 Release 3

AMI - Ami Professional 1.0/2.0/3.0

BROTD - Brother Word Processors (daisy wheel)

BROTF - Brother Word Processors (notebook/France)

BROTG - Brother Word Processors (graphics ink jet)

BROTN - Brother Word Processors (notebook/US)

BROTU - Brother Word Processors (notebook/UK)

DBASE - dBase (III to 5.0)

DSW2 - DisplayWrite 2

DSW3 - DisplayWrite 3

DSW4 - DisplayWrite 4 (version 1)

DSW42 - DisplayWrite 4.2

DSW5 - DisplayWrite 5

DWA - DisplayWrite Assistant

ENAB1 - Enable 1.x

ENAB2 - Enable 2.x

ENAB3 - Enable 3 (OA)

ENAB4 - Enable 4.x

FXPRO - FoxPro 2.x

GEO - GeoWrite

HTML - HyperText Markup Language

INSCR - InterScript

IWA - IBM Writing Assistant (version 1/2)

LEWP - Leading Edge WP (LEWP)

LM1 - Lotus Manuscript 1.0

LM2 - Lotus Manuscript 2.0/2.1

M11D - Mass-11 (native or export)

MSAC - Microsoft Access (all versions)

MSPP - Microsoft PowerPoint

MSWD3 - Microsoft Word for Dos, version 3.0 or earlier

MSWD4 - Microsoft Word 4.0 for Dos

MSWD50 - Microsoft Word 5.0 for Dos

MSWD55 - Microsoft Word 5.5 for Dos

MSWKW1 - Microsoft Works version 1.x WP (Dos)

MSWKW2 - Microsoft Works version 2.x WP (Dos)

MSWKW3 - Microsoft Works version 3.x WP (Windows)

MSWKW4 - Microsoft Works version 4.x WP (Windows)

MSWR - Microsoft Write

MSWW1 - Microsoft Word for Windows, version 1.0

MSWW2 - Microsoft Word for Windows, version 2.0

MSWW6 - Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0

MSWW7 - Microsoft Word for Windows, version 7.0

MSWW8 - Microsoft Word 8 (Office 97)

MSWW2K - Microsoft Word 2000, 2002 (XP) or 2003 (.DOC)

MW03X - Microsoft Word 2003 XML

MW07 - Microsoft Word 2007 (DOCX, DOCM)

MSXL - Microsoft Excel (all versions)

MX03X - Microsoft Excel 2003 XML

MUL2D - MultiMate Advantage-II (3.7)

MUL3D - MultiMate 3.3 series (3.3/3.31)

MUL4D - MultiMate 4.0

MULAD - MultiMate Advantage (3.5/3.6)

NBD - Nota Bene for Dos (including Lingua)

NBW - Nota Bene for Windows (including Lingua)

NWD - NewWord

ODBC - ODBC data base

PCW - PC-Write

PFSFC1 - pfs:First Choice version 1

PFSFC2 - pfs:First Choice version 2

PFSFC3 - pfs:First Choice version 3

PFSPW1 - pfs:Professional Write ver. 1

PFSPW2 - pfs:Professional Write ver. 2.x

PFSPW3 - pfs:Professional Write ver. 3.x

PFSW1A - pfs:Write version 1.0 (A)

PFSW1B - pfs:Write version 1.0 (B)

PFSW1C - pfs:Write version 1.0 (C)

PFSW2 - pfs:Write version 2.0 (Spinnaker)

PTS - Personal Typing System

RFT - IBM DCA/RFT

RTF - Microsoft RTF (Rich Text Format)

SAMNA - Samna Word IV/Plus IV

SIGN - IBM Signature

TW - Total Word

UNTX - Unknown format - Last Resort Text Recovery

WPF41 - WordPerfect 4.1

WPF42 - WordPerfect 4.2

WPF50 - WordPerfect 5.0

WPF51 - WordPerfect 5.1 (Dos or Windows)

WPF52 - WordPerfect 5.2 (Dos or Windows)

WPF60 - WordPerfect 6.0 (Dos or Windows)

WPF61 - WordPerfect 6.1 (Dos or Windows)

WPF7 - WordPerfect 7

WPF8 - WordPerfect 8

WPF9 - WordPerfect 2000 or higher

WS3 - WordStar 3.3x

WS4 - WordStar 4.0 (Professional)

WS50 - WordStar 5.0

WS55 - WordStar 5.5

WS6 - WordStar 6.0

WS7 - WordStar 7.0

XYD - XyWrite for Dos

XYW - XyWrite for Windows

Note that wild cards * and ? may be used to specify a source format keyword revision number. For example, WPF* is a valid source format keyword.

Destination Format Keywords

HTML - HyperText Markup Language

INSCR - InterScript

MSWW8 - Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 (XP) or 2003

MOXML - Microsoft Office 2003 XML

PDF - Adobe Portable Document Format

RTF - Microsoft Rich Text Format

SEPV - Separated/Delimited Values

TXTF - Formatted Text

TXTU - Unformatted Text

WPF6 - WordPerfect 6 or higher, including Corel WordPerfect

Note that wild cards are not permitted in destination format keywords.