Five tips for working with Reveal Codes in WordPerfect

Long-time WordPerfect users swear by Reveal Codes, a quick and easy way of viewing the formatting instructions – codes – that are inserted into a document when you perform common tasks such as pressing the Tab key, setting page margins, inserting a footnote, applying bolding or italics, and so forth.  When I teach novices how to use WordPerfect (and yes, I still have WordPerfect training clients, including a few newbies), I introduce Reveal Codes by comparing it to an X-ray of the document.

The feature is incredibly useful for troubleshooting because it’s easy to see coding errors – usually meaning an incorrect or misplaced code.  With Reveal Codes enabled, it’s a simple matter to delete or move any codes that are causing problems.

For the benefit of both WordPerfect veterans and relative newbies, here are a few advanced tips for working with, and getting the most from, Reveal Codes.

Customize the Reveal Codes Display

To make Reveal Codes easier to see – something that can be especially important for novices or, for that matter, anyone who works at a computer screen for long periods of time – you can change the font face, font size, and/or font color within the Reveal Codes window.  You can even change the Reveal Codes background color so that the text and codes stand out more clearly.

To make any or all of those changes, do either of the following:

1.  Click the Tools menu > Settings…, then click Display, and click the Reveal Codes tab; or

2.  With Reveal Codes displayed, right-click anywhere in the Reveal Codes screen, then choose Settings…

Either of those methods will take you to the the Reveal Codes tab within the Display Settings dialog.

From that screen, you can click the Font button to change the font face and/or size.  To change the font color, click the button labeled “Text.” To change the background color, click the button labeled “Background.”  Hint:  You can click “More” (at the bottom of the background color drop-down) to choose a custom color.  For me, a pale orange or yellow background works nicely to set off the text and codes, especially if I make the font size a little bigger than the default setting.

Change the Size of the Reveal Codes Window

It’s easy to resize the Reveal Codes window so that it takes up less – or more! – of your screen. Simply position your mouse pointer over the top “edge” of the Reveal Codes window and, when the pointer changes into a double-headed arrow, left-click and drag up or down.

Remember, to toggle the Reveal Codes window on or off, you can press Alt F3 or click the View menu, Reveal Codes.  (If you use the DOS-compatible keyboard, you have the additional option of pressing F11.)

Also, although it’s hard to see, you can toggle Reveal Codes on or off by left-clicking the tiny horizontal bar at the very bottom of the vertical scroll bar (at the right side of your screen).  Note that this task works even if your mouse pointer appears to be a double-headed arrow, not the usual arrow shape.

Double-Click Codes to Open Dialog Boxes

Even experienced WP users are often surprised to learn that double-clicking a code in the Reveal Codes window usually opens a dialog box with more advanced formatting options.  For example, double-clicking a margin code opens the Page Setup dialog; double-clicking a tab code opens the Tab Set dialog; double-clicking a Hard Return code opens the Paragraph Format dialog; double-clicking an Outline code opens the Bullets & Numbering dialog, where you can choose a different outline style; and double-clicking a Para Style code for an automatic numbered paragraph opens the Styles Editor (so that you can change the indents of the paragraph and/or the number itself or make other formatting changes).

Needless to say, this function can come in very handy.

Try double-clicking a few different codes to see which dialog box appears.

Delete Codes by Dragging them Out of the Reveal Codes Window

Most experienced WordPerfect users know that you can delete codes from within the Reveal Codes window by pressing the Delete key (when the cursor, shown as a red rectangle, is to the left of a code) or by pressing the Backspace key (when the cursor is to the right of a code).  But not everyone knows that you also have the option of deleting a code by left-clicking it and dragging it up and out of the Reveal Codes window.  (Releasing the left mouse button when the mouse pointer is anywhere in the document editing screen will delete the code.)

Remember that with “paired” codes such as font attributes (bold, italics, underlining), you can delete either the the “On” code or the “Off” code.

View Expanded Codes

With some codes, positioning your cursor to the left of the code expands the code and displays more detailed information than you normally see.  That is true for margin codes, TOC codes, and TOA codes, among others.

If you would like to see the complete details by default – as opposed to simply when you click immediately to the left of a code – go into the Display Settings dialog by doing either of the following:

1.  Click the Tools menu > Settings…, then click Display, and click the Reveal Codes tab; or

2.  With Reveal Codes displayed, right-click anywhere in the Reveal Codes screen, then choose Settings…

Then check the box labeled “Show codes in detail,” and click “OK.”

Once you have changed that setting, you’ll see the expanded codes in the Reveal Codes window regardless of your cursor location.