Switching From WordPerfect to Word: A Practical Guide for Lawyers

If you’ve worked on legal documents in WordPerfect for 10, 20, or 30 years, you’re an experienced legal drafter with a mastery over a capable word processor. But the industry-wide switch to Microsoft Word is inescapable. With virtually every court, client, co-counsel, and legal technology platform running on Word, staying on a different platform creates friction that will only grow over time.

Attorneys who make the switch from WordPerfect to Word often end up ahead of most Word users who’ve used it for years. That’s because most longtime Word users have never built a properly structured Word document. They’ve been working around it rather than with it. A firm switching from WordPerfect has the opportunity to build its template library according to best practices from the start, which is something most Word-native firms have never done.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Feature translation from WordPerfect to Word
• The Reveal Codes question
• The correct conversion method for legal documents
• How to prioritize your template archive
• How to get productive in Word without years of trial and error

How WordPerfect knowledge transfers to Word

Before getting to what’s different between the two platforms, let’s establish how much of what you already know applies to MS Word.

The underlying logic of legal document drafting transfers completely. Everything you rely on in WordPerfect (heading hierarchy, paragraph numbering, page layout, headers and footers, TOC and TOA generation, footnotes, cross-references) has a direct equivalent in Word. Even though the implementation might be different, the concepts are identical.

Here are all the main WordPerfect capabilities and their Word equivalents:

• Automatic paragraph numbering: Word handles this through Multilevel List styles linked to Heading styles. They require initial setup, but once configured, they are more robust than WP’s numbering.
• Table of Contents generation: identical principle, where Word generates it automatically from heading styles.
• Table of Authorities: the same mark-and-generate workflow, which goes References > Mark Citation > Insert Table of Authorities.
• Footnotes and endnotes: identical workflow with comparable keyboard shortcuts.
• Headers and footers with section breaks: same concept, but different interface location.
• Track Changes: Word’s version is more widely used and better supported by external collaborators than WP’s.
• Macros: Word’s VBA macros are more capable than WP’s macro language for most legal automation tasks.

There’s, however, one key conceptual difference: in WordPerfect, formatting is applied through codes embedded in the text stream, visible through Reveal Codes. In Word, formatting is applied through styles that sit at the paragraph level and aren’t visible unless you know how to surface them. This architectural difference is not better or worse, but is foundational to the rest of our guide.

The Reveal Codes replacement in Word

Every attorney making the WordPerfect to Word transition eventually asks the same question: “Word doesn’t have Reveal Codes. How am I supposed to know what’s actually happening in the document?”

Fair question.

WordPerfect stores formatting as codes embedded in the text stream. Reveal Codes shows you those codes. But Word doesn’t use codes. Instead, it stores formatting in styles and paragraph properties that sit outside the text flow. There is nothing to reveal for Word in the WordPerfect sense because Word uses a different architecture.

At the same time, Word has two tools that together replace Reveal Codes functionally: Reveal Formatting and Style Inspector.

The Reveal Formatting pane (Shift + F1 on Windows, or Home > Styles Pane on Mac) opens a panel showing every formatting property applied to the selected text: font, character spacing, paragraph spacing, indentation, style assignment, and section properties. Each property is a clickable link that opens the relevant dialog for editing. This is the closest functionality to Reveal Codes, and it’s almost never mentioned in guides aimed at WordPerfect users.

Style Inspector (Home > Styles > Style Inspector on Windows). Shows the paragraph style, any paragraph-level direct formatting overrides, the character style, and any character-level overrides, in two clearly labeled layers. The Clear buttons next to each layer remove overrides without touching the underlying style assignment.

So while Reveal Codes shows everything in one view. Reveal Formatting and Style Inspector show the same information in two steps. So just a different workflow. Once it’s built into your muscle memory, it’ll seem routine. In fact, Word’s separation of style-level formatting from override-level formatting becomes more useful when documents are complex.

WordPerfect to Word feature translation: The practical map for law firms

During your first few weeks in Word, you’ll find yourself reaching for a WordPerfect feature and not knowing how to find it. Here’s a quick cheatsheet to help you get started.

A few things worth knowing that apply specifically to legal documents:

• Block Protect to Keep With Next is the fix for orphaned article headings in wills and trusts. Apply it through the Heading style definition so it works automatically.
• Line Numbering for California and Arizona pleadings sits at Layout > Line Numbers. More on the correct setup below.
• WP Paragraph Numbering to Multilevel List is the conversion that matters most for interrogatories and contract provisions. This setup takes time once, but after that, it’s reliable.
• TOA workflow for appellate briefs is nearly identical to WP. The marking interface looks different but the principle (mark each citation, then generate) is the same.

How to convert WordPerfect files to Word correctly

There are four ways to move a WordPerfect document into Word (with three of them creating problems):

1. Save As Word within WordPerfect. The output will nominally be a DOCX but built on a broken foundation: rogue styles, broken numbering, random section breaks, and formatting that fights every edit. Don’t use this method for any document you want to edit again.
2. Open the WPD file directly in Word. This is a slightly better option but will still produce similar problems. Useful only for documents you need to read or print once.
3. Copy-paste with formatting. The worst result of all four methods. It’ll import every hidden code, tab stop, spacing inconsistency, and formatting conflict from the original. Avoid it entirely.
4. Copy-paste without formatting into a properly configured blank Word document. The only method that produces a clean, editable result. It takes more time upfront, but it’s the only approach worth the effort for any document you intend to reuse.

There are two exceptions that call for a different approach:

• Footnote-heavy documents (appellate briefs). Copy-pasting without formatting strips footnote content, and rebuilding footnotes manually is more work than fixing the structural problems that come from opening the WPD file directly.
• WPD files received from outside sources (court-published forms). Several jurisdictions still publish official forms as WPD files (New York is a notable example), which means attorneys who don’t use WordPerfect still need a way to fill them out in Word. Copy-pasting without formatting destroys the form’s structure, including fillable fields and exact layout requirements.

For both cases, open the WPD in Word and work with the imperfect conversion rather than stripping it down.

The 6-step WPD to DOCX conversion process

Before converting any document, configure Normal.dotm with your firm’s default font and paragraph settings (more on this below). After that:

1. Open the WordPerfect document.
2. Open a new blank Word document (genuinely blank, not an existing file).
3. In WordPerfect, select all and copy.
4. In Word, use Paste Special > Keep Text Only. This strips WP’s formatting entirely.
5. Use Find & Replace (Ctrl + H) to clean leftover tabs (find ^t, replace with nothing) and double paragraph marks (find ^p^p, replace with ^p, and run until the count is zero).
6. Apply styles from scratch using Word’s Styles pane.

Document-type specifics:

• Wills and trusts: WP’s Block Protect codes don’t survive conversion. Rebuild heading behavior using Keep With Next in the Heading style definition.
• Interrogatories: WP paragraph numbers become plain text after conversion. Rebuild using Word’s Multilevel List linked to Heading styles.

How to prioritize your legal template archive: A framework for the transition

A firm that has used WordPerfect for 15 years may have hundreds of WPD template files: wills, trusts, powers of attorney, engagement letters, pleading templates, discovery sets, demand letters, fee agreements. Attempting to convert all of them before the transition goes live is one of the most reliable ways for the project to stall.

The practical approach is a three-tier framework.

Tier 1: Convert immediately. High-frequency documents, used by multiple people, multiple times per week. For most firms, these are engagement letters, standard retainer agreements, primary pleading templates, and core discovery sets. These justify the full scorched-earth conversion and proper style rebuild. Get these right before anything else.

Tier 2: Convert on next use. Moderate-frequency documents, used once or twice a month. Don’t convert these proactively. Convert them the first time they’re needed in Word. This spreads conversion work across natural workflows rather than front-loading it into the transition period.

Tier 3: Archive as read-only reference. Rarely used or purely historical documents. Keep these as WPD files accessible through a WPD viewer. Don’t convert them unless they move into active use. Converting historical documents that no one drafts from is not a good use of transition time.

The general decision rule: if a document type is used more than once a month by more than one person, it belongs in Tier 1. Everything else can wait.

Setting up Word for your legal documents

There are two Word configurations that WordPerfect attorneys commonly skip, both of which have an outsized effect on how Word behaves during and after the transition.

Configuring Normal.dotm before converting anything

Normal.dotm is the template Word uses for every new document it creates. If its default font and paragraph settings don’t match your firm’s drafting standards, those defaults will reassert themselves at unexpected moments. For example, a paragraph that suddenly reverts to Calibri 11 pt, or spacing that resets after a paste. This is the Word equivalent of not setting Initial Codes in WordPerfect before building a document.

Do this once on every Windows machine that will be used for drafting, before beginning any conversion work:

1. Open a blank Word document.
2. Home tab > Font dialog launcher > set the font and size to your firm’s standard (typically Times New Roman 12 pt for court filings).
3. Click Set As Default > All documents based on the Normal.dotm template > OK.
4. Home tab > Paragraph dialog launcher > set spacing before and after, line spacing.
5. Click Set As Default > All documents based on the Normal.dotm template > OK.

For Macs, use the Format > Font and Format > Paragraph options from the menu bar.

Line numbering for pleadings in certain jurisdictions

California, Arizona, and several other jurisdictions require line-numbered pleadings with body text aligned to numbered lines in the left margin. WordPerfect handles this in a way attorneys in these jurisdictions have relied on for years. Word’s equivalent works but requires deliberate configuration.

Word includes a built-in legal pleading paper template (File > New > search “pleading”) that handles most of the line-numbering setup automatically. For attorneys new to Word, starting from that template is the fastest path to a working pleading. The template still requires cleanup to match local rules, including font size, margins, caption format, and line spacing, but the structural foundation is already in place.

For attorneys who want full control over their setup, here’s how to create a standard California pleading format:

1. Go to Layout tab > Line Numbers > Line Numbering Options.
2. Check “Add line numbering.”
3. Set “Restart each page.”
4. Apply line numbering at the section level. If the pleading has a caption section that shouldn’t be numbered, place a section break (Layout > Breaks > Next Page) between the caption and the body, then apply line numbering only to the body section.
5. Test footnote interaction before filing. Footnotes affect line counts in ways that may need adjustment per local rule.

You only need to configure this once in a pleading template. After that, every pleading generated from the template will inherit the correct setup automatically.

Why switching to Word is a drafting upgrade

Most WordPerfect attorneys who switch to Word replicate what they were doing in WordPerfect: typing paragraph numbers manually, using hard returns for spacing, building tables of contents by hand. This produces Word documents that are structurally as fragile as the worst WordPerfect documents. The habits have to change with the tools.

Attorneys who learn to use Word as it’s designed (styles driving structure, multilevel lists managing numbering, automated fields handling cross-references) end up ahead of most Word users who have used it for years without understanding its underlying logic. The truth is that the correct usage of Word is rarely taught.

That’s where a firm transitioning from WordPerfect has an advantage. It can build its template library correctly from the start. Most Word-native firms are still working from repurposed documents and accumulated workarounds. A clean transition, done properly, will produce a more reliable and scalable drafting foundation.

Word templates are the foundation of document automation. Using tools like Clio Draft can help you build style-based, structured, and clean templates, which you can then populate with client data automatically.

The payoff of a clean transition

Switching from WordPerfect to Word is not a simple file conversion. It’s a platform transition that requires the right method, the right approach to your existing template archive, and an understanding of how Word’s architecture differs from WordPerfect’s. Done poorly, it produces years of frustration with documents that fight every edit. Done correctly, it produces a cleaner, more consistent drafting foundation than most Word-native firms have ever built.

The feature translation and conversion method in this guide gives you the practical bridge. At the same time, the template prioritization framework gives you a manageable project, without overwhelming your team.

Firms that make the Word transition are positioned for something WordPerfect never enabled: document automation that generates compliant, consistently formatted legal documents in minutes. Clio Draft is where that next step begins.