Reveal Codes, Simplified.

Overwhelmed when you Reveal Codes in your WordPerfect document? Sure, there are a lot of codes, but for the most part, they fall into two categories: “open” codes and “paired” codes. Let’s look at some visual characteristics and functional differences:

“OPEN” codes appear in Reveal Codes enclosed in a rectangle. When used, they take effect at the location of the cursor and continue to the end of the document OR until they are changed. For instance: Consider an open code which designates that double spacing should begin at a certain place in the document. The text will be double spaced from the starting point (the location of the cursor when the code was changed) to the end of the document OR until a single space code is inserted. Some other examples of open codes? Font, Tab Sets, Date, Headers and Footers and Paper Size designations.

“PAIRED” codes are just that - a pair. There’s a beginning code and an end code. My favorite description of the appearance of paired codes are “little price tags.” The beginning code has a rectangular left side and a pointed right side, while the end code shows a rectangular right side and a pointed left side. They do like little price tags. Some simple examples would be bold, italic and underline. For instance: When you reveal codes to view a bolded word, you will see a beginning code preceding the word and an end code following the word. Whatever lies between the codes is controlled by the codes. One important thing about paired codes - they are a pair. That means that they are inserted together and deleted together. You can’t just delete one. When you do, the other disappears as well.

Admittedly, there’s more to it than that. But it’s a strong start.