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You may wish to use a word processor to prepare or modify MODFLOW input files or to view MODFLOW output files. Most of the time, you are better off preparing input files with a preprocessor. Both free and commercial preprocessors are available. However, sometimes you may need to use a word processor instead because the MODFLOW preprocessor does not support a new MODFLOW package you wish to use or because the preprocessor does not support all the functionality of MODFLOW. This section gives some advice on how to best use word processors with MODFLOW and how to avoid some common mistakes which might slow you down.
When viewing the main output file of MODFLOW, it's useful to remember that it is designed to be printed on a line printer which has 132 non-proportionally spaced characters per line. Thus to get the output to look the way it was intended on letter paper you need use a non-proportional font such as Courier and use a small font size (5-8) so that none of the lines are wrapped. You may also wish to have the paper in landscape rather than portrait mode.
You have the option within MODFLOW to save heads, drawdowns and other types of output on special files as well as the main output file. These files are in binary format. You can not read these with a word processor. You must use a special program to interpret them. If you tell MODFLOW to save the final heads in such a file, you can tell MODFLOW to read the file and use it as the starting heads in another model.
The input for MODFLOW or its predecessor was originally in the form of punched cards. The punch card legacy is apparent in the format of the input files; no line is more than 80 characters long, the length of a punch card. Nearly all the input is in the form of right-justified fields 10 characters long. You need to be familiar with FORTRAN formats before attempting to write the input files with a word processor. The easiest way to prepare these on a word processor is to select a non-proportional font with 10 characters per inch and use right tab stops. Courier 10 pt with right tabs once an inch works well for me. You need to hit the "enter" or "return" key at the end of each line rather than going to the next line by using tabs or spaces. When you save the file, you must save it as an ASCII text file. Normally you would do this by saving it as "text only" or some similar form. If you don't save the file as a ASCII text file, the word processing program will include lots of extra formatting codes. MODFLOW will not be able to interpret the formatting codes. You may also wish to save a copy in the word processors normal format. The ASACII version will not have any tabs in it and will be more difficult to edit if you need to change the file later.
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