My apology to Jude and the list for not resonating to Jude's reference. Searching my own archives, I found and am forwarding the following from Jude, taken from a "Dummies Daily" list, telling all about the MSWord 97 code problem. I have to assume that I looked this over and found it less than helpful at the time, but here it is for what it is worth. This does not look much like an ISO standard. Chuck On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, DaShiell, Jude T wrote: > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dummies Daily [mailto:word-97 at lists.dummiesdaily.com] > Sent: Monday, March 20, 2000 10:22 PM > To: dashielljt at navair.navy.mil > Subject: Word 97 Windows: LIVING WITHOUT FORMATTING CODES > > > ******************************************************* > > DUMMIES DAILY: Microsoft Word 97 > http://www.dummiesdaily.com > > ******************************************************* > > PCs, MACS, INTERNET, WEB PUBLISHING, PROGRAMMING... > No Problem. Expert Solutions. IDG Books Worldwide has > the solutions you need at http://www.idgbooks.com/ > > ******************************************************* > > TODAY'S TIP: LIVING WITHOUT FORMATTING CODES > > In response to a tip I ran about showing formatting codes > in Word, a reader explained the situation in wonderful > detail: > > " Word can't show "all the formatting codes" because there > ARE NO formatting codes... at least not like there are in > WordPerfect or an HTML file. If you open a Word document in > an editor such as UltraEdit (or the DOS Editor with the > command-line switch of /n, where n is the column you want > the display to wrap), you'll see some binary stuff at the > top of the file, the text itself looking like mostly plain > text with an oddment or two of control characters and > CR/LFs, and then a couple of screenfuls of more binary > stuff. That stuff at the last third or so of the file *is* > the formatting instructions itself, with pointers to > various offsets into the text saying "that yonder is > boldface." It's also where the graphics are stored, in > binary form, with the actual inline location in the text > indicated with a Chr$(1). Word has always been this way, > clear back to the earliest versions for MS-DOS. This > structure also means that, if you have a Word document that > is corrupted and can't be opened in Word, you can get the > text back with relative ease by opening the file in the DOS > Editor and stripping the binary junk from the top and > bottom of the file, leaving what is fundamentally plain > text that can be saved as such and reformatted in Word." > > > ******************************************************* > > To subscribe to Dummies Daily and get free, daily tips > by e-mail, visit Dummies Daily at > http://www.dummiesdaily.com. > > To unsubscribe or make a change to your Dummies Daily > subscription, stop by > http://www.dummiesdaily.com/change.asp. > > ******************************************************* > > Copyright (C) 2000 by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. All > rights reserved. > > A word from our lawyer > http://www.dummiesdaily.com/legal/disclaimer.html > > -- The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (97% of Full) So visit me sometime at http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh or you might reach me at chuckh on the jabber network.
