[Wine] WordPerfect12

[Doug]

I was informed that WP12 works in Linux, and I have obtained the disk
and installed it without difficulty. I need some help on saving a file
that I write
in WP. As soon as I try to save it in a Linux directory, it crashes,
and of course, I don't have C:\Windows directories. I would like to
correspond with
anyone who has installed this program and is using it. (I have used WP
in Windows for years--since WP 5.1--and I really would like to use it in
Linux.)
I will need to open files that have been saved in a Linux directory and
also save in a Linux directory. One happy experience: I can print from it.
All assistance greatly appreciated.

--doug

[John Drescher]

As soon as I try to save it in a Linux directory, it crashes, and of
course, I don't have C:\Windows directories.

The C: that wine uses is internal to your current wine prefix and has
nothing at all to do with a windows install that you have in the same
machine. So this is not the cause of a crash.

John

[John Drescher]

OK, but the only options in the "save" box are for Windows directories, like
"Program Files" or "My Documents" and one or two others.

These are in your wine prefix on linux and have nothing to do with
windows8. Look at the .wine folder in your home directory.

If I try to erase "My Documents" and write"
/home/doug/Documents/filename.doc" as soon as I start that it goes to a
crash box,
and the only option then is to close the file. (I am not trying to save
anything to the Windows 8 system that is, AAMOF, on this machine also,
in a different partition.) What now?

[John Drescher]

Tried saving to one of the directories it called for, and it still crashed,
as soon as I selected the directory. It also crashes if I select the
up arrow, top right of the save box.
The installation created a whole directory tree, and these directories
(that it "likes") are available in the tree.

I would run WordPerfect from the shell and see if there is anything
interested in the messages that wine echos to the shell.

http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-525985fc2b5c9dcaed99a4701b949ee1ee7bafd3

Also you may want to go to the forum instead. The mailing list these
days is not that active. You will get better help at the forum.


John

[jordan]

Hi doug / John.

I would recommend that the very first thing you should do (with
essentially any problematic app in Wine) is first consult WineHQ's
appDB and see if there are any workarounds to your problem /how well
it is supported (which AFAICT there does appear to be, in the case of
your crashing on saving).

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=3522&iTestingId=5283

Apparently the 'enhanced dialogs' used in WordPerfect12 cause it to
crash under wine, you must disable them to properly load/save
documents. [just scroll down the page abit for instructions on how to
disable them].

if it still doesn't work, then John is quite correct, you should run
your app from a shell, see if you can spot the problem or gather that
information for someone who better understands the output. [then take
that info to the forum for help].

cheerz

jordan

Post by John Drescher

Tried saving to one of the directories it called for, and it still crashed,
as soon as I selected the directory. It also crashes if I select the
up arrow, top right of the save box.
The installation created a whole directory tree, and these directories
(that it "likes") are available in the tree.

I would run WordPerfect from the shell and see if there is anything
interested in the messages that wine echos to the shell.
http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-525985fc2b5c9dcaed99a4701b949ee1ee7bafd3
Also you may want to go to the forum instead. The mailing list these
days is not that active. You will get better help at the forum.
John

[Doug]

Post by jordan
Hi doug / John.
I would recommend that the very first thing you should do (with
essentially any problematic app in Wine) is first consult WineHQ's
appDB and see if there are any workarounds to your problem /how well
it is supported (which AFAICT there does appear to be, in the case of
your crashing on saving).
https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=3522&iTestingId=5283
Apparently the 'enhanced dialogs' used in WordPerfect12 cause it to
crash under wine, you must disable them to properly load/save
documents. [just scroll down the page abit for instructions on how to
disable them].
if it still doesn't work, then John is quite correct, you should run
your app from a shell, see if you can spot the problem or gather that
information for someone who better understands the output. [then take
that info to the forum for help].
cheerz
jordan

thanx, Jordan. Unchecking the enhanced dialogs seems to have solved the
immediate problem.
It looks like I can now save files to the Linux directory also.
I'm not sure how you got to the answer page--when I entered WordPerfect
12, I was told there were 189 entries!
Do you know if I can save in Word 1997~2003 format without at the same
time making the program
look and feel like MS Word? I got sort of strange results when I tried
that. Maybe have to play with it some more.

--doug

[jordan]

Hey doug,

Post by Doug
thanx, Jordan. Unchecking the enhanced dialogs seems to have solved the
immediate problem.
It looks like I can now save files to the Linux directory also.
I'm not sure how you got to the answer page--when I entered WordPerfect 12,
I was told there were 189 entries!

Yeah, saving wasn't the problem [really], it was the enhanced dialogs,
so it should work fine now. [i would assume by the entry appDB]. As
far as how i found the correct entry; i googled "winehq wordperfect12"
[that's what i do, when looking for info; "winehq + appname" ... the
top search results will almost always contain appDB + other useful
info like maybe some answers existing in the forum already, etc. * you
should actually google that youself as there is another main, more
complete entry for wordperfect 12 office in the appDB. + some stuff in
the forums...

Post by Doug
Do you know if I can save in Word 1997~2003 format without at the same time
making the program
look and feel like MS Word? I got sort of strange results when I tried that.
Maybe have to play with it some more.

I have no experience with WordPerfect, so i don't know - as far as
theming in Wine, I am not sure exactly what you are after - but it is
possible to theme wine [but not super easy]. I've done it before, but
not in some time. [ i use to have Wine match my dark GTK+ themes; so
dark menubar, menus, white-text, etc. I modified a 3rd party windows
theme that worked okay in wine, but i remember some apps not looking
perfect, as wine still feels very win 2000/xp like ].

cheerz

jordan

[Martin Gregorie]

Post by Doug
It looks like I can now save files to the Linux directory also.

You should use your Linux File Manager to poke around under the hood a
little to see where the "Windows drives", that Wine makes available to
the programs you run, are mapped to. In particular, if you're using the
default wine prefix, WINE_PREFIX=.wine, then C: points to
the .wine/drive_c directory on your login directory ($HOME) and the Z:
drive points to '/', the root of the Linux filing system. IOW, if your
home directory is called 'myhome', then if you save a WP file to
Z:\home\myhome and then exit from WP, you'll find the file on your login
directory.

Spending five minutes looking at this sort of stuff is time well spent.
Its always worth knowing how a program like Wine does things and how
this affects the Windows apps it runs because what you know about this
will apply to any other program you run with Wine.

Post by Doug
Do you know if I can save in Word 1997~2003 format without at the same
time making the program
look and feel like MS Word? I got sort of strange results when I tried
that. Maybe have to play with it some more.

If WP12 can do it on a Windows box, it should be able to do it on a
Linux box under Wine provided that all the DLLs etc it needs for the
task have been installed. By that I mean that if WP12 can do it as the
only app installed on a Windows box, it can do it under Wine, but if
doing it under Windows needs extra WP DLLs or programs, you'll need them
under Wine as well.


Martin

[Doug]

Post by Martin Gregorie

Post by Doug
It looks like I can now save files to the Linux directory also.

You should use your Linux File Manager to poke around under the hood a
little to see where the "Windows drives", that Wine makes available to
the programs you run, are mapped to. In particular, if you're using the
default wine prefix, WINE_PREFIX=.wine, then C: points to
drive points to '/', the root of the Linux filing system. IOW, if your
home directory is called 'myhome', then if you save a WP file to
Z:\home\myhome and then exit from WP, you'll find the file on your login
directory.
Spending five minutes looking at this sort of stuff is time well spent.
Its always worth knowing how a program like Wine does things and how
this affects the Windows apps it runs because what you know about this
will apply to any other program you run with Wine.

Thanx, Martin. I do plan to do some poking around. One thing
I found is disabling that "enhanced file dialogs" must have also
disabled the hot key, ctrl-w, or else it wasn't implemented in this
version of WP. (ctrl-W should bring up the set of tables of
special characters. It is available from a drop-down menu,
but ctrl-w was handy, and I'm not a person who likes hot-keys.)

--doug

[Martin Gregorie]

Post by Doug
One thing
I found is disabling that "enhanced file dialogs" must have also
disabled the hot key, ctrl-w, or else it wasn't implemented in this
version of WP. (ctrl-W should bring up the set of tables of
special characters. It is available from a drop-down menu,
but ctrl-w was handy, and I'm not a person who likes hot-keys.)

I can't help here - sorry. The last time I used Wordperfect was over two
decades ago and was WP for DOS, so I've long forgotten its control key
combinations. AFAIK Ctrl-W doesn't have any special meanings for Linux
or its more common desktops.


Martin