What I do when I convert WordPerfect to Word is open the document in Word, I
have macros on the toolbar that (i) remove all the "empty" paragraphs, (ii)
remove section breaks and (iii) remove field codes.  Then I copy everything
(Control A) and paste it into a new Word document.  At the end I have a
document that is ready to be reformatted and since I copied it to a new
document all my styles are there waiting for it.  The only thing that causes
a problem is if the WordPerfect document had curly quotes or apostrophes,
but we stopped using those several years ago when we discovered they didn't
convert to Word.  This works well for us and it sounds like you are removing
even more "stuff" before you paste into Word.  Have you tried pasting as
unformatted text?

I don't believe it is possible. I haven't tested third-party solutions but
unless they reproduce my manual solution I doubt they will work.

The thing is that the converted documents I've worked with have been a
mishmash of styles and direct formatting such that editing them is a
nightmare. Numbering doesn't translate, neither do fields.

I have WP available on my machine so I open the document in WP and save it
to a text document, not .rtf. I then open that in Word. Flipping back and
forth between Word and WP I reformat the .txt file in Word using styles
until I have a good reproduction of the WP document. I save that as a
template.

I do the same with OCR text for the same reason.

I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to hear.

I hope you are aware of the issues with Word's automatic numbering. It is
not nearly as stable or simple to use as numbering in WP.

See: How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in your Word
document
<URL: http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/OutlineNumbering.html>. This
is based on ...

Word's Numbering Explained
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm>

What follows is general advice I give people moving (often unwillingly) from
WP to Word. It repeats some of what I said above.

It may be that you already know this or feel you don't need to know it. Feel
free to disregard. Word and Word Perfect work very differently from one
another. Each program's methods have strengths and weaknesses; but, if you
try to use one of these programs as if it were the other, it is like pushing
on a string! You can easily make a lot of extra work for yourself.
If you are unwilling to take the time to learn to use Word's methods, you
should stick to using Word Pad. You'll have a lot less grief, although
you'll miss out on a lot of raw power.

See <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordVsWordPerfect.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/TipsAndGotchas.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/RevealCodes.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/WordPerfectConverters.htm>
<URL:
http://businesssoft.about.com/compute/businesssoft/library/blconvert.htm>
for information on Word for Word Perfect users.

For more:
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Numbering/WordsNumberingExplained.htm>
<URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm>

In Word 2000 (or later) You can get the function keys to display in a
special toolbar at the bottom of the screen if you want (something like
pressing F3 twice in WP). The following macro will do this.
Sub ShowMeFunctionKeys()
   Commandbars("Function Key Display").Visible = True
End Sub

Learn about Styles - really learn! I resisted for years and now regret every
day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push,
it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied
to it!

In Word Perfect macros are often used to reproduce text. In Word you want to
use templates, AutoText and AutoCorrect for this. You can use FILLIN and ASK
fields or UserForms to query the user. For some form documents, Word's
"online forms" work very well. For more about online forms, follow the links
at <URL: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm>
especially Dian Chapman's series of articles.

I would not recommend using converted documents long-term. They will be
filled with formatting anomolies that will get you at the worst time. This
is especially true of any documents containing automatic numbering or
bullets. Try recreating form documents in Word using the following process:

In Word Perfect (if you still have it, in Word if not) save your files as
text files.

Use your converted files as references to show you how you want your
formatting to look.

Create a new document in Word and insert the text from the text file. Save
this new document as a Word template. Format it the way you want using
styles, not direct formatting. Save it again.

To use a template within Word, use File => New and pick your template. This
will create a new document for you.