Complete archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0 (original) (raw)

[[Robert J. Sawyer]](arindex.htm) Science Fiction Writer

ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

SFWRITER.COM WordStar Archive

[[WordStar]](wordstar-wordmark.png)

by Robert J. Sawyer

VERSION 1.5 Monday, August 12, 2024

[[WordStar under vDosPlus]](wordstar-under-vdosplus.png)

“WordStar was magnificent. I loved it. It was logical, beautiful, perfect. Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness.” —Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were written with WordStar, the best word-processing programthe world has ever known.

WordStar was first introduced in 1978 and the final release — WordStar for DOS 7.0 Rev. D — came out in December 1992. The program has never been updated since, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the program is abandonware.

But I still use it, and George R.R. Martin uses an earlier version. There has never — until now — been a complete online archive of the final version of the program along with all its manuals. Here it is:

I spent weeks putting all this together. The archive contains not just the WordStar program but also extensive resources on how to use it, in addition to fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, scanned from my own copies.

Since MS-DOS programs, such as WordStar, can't run under modern operating systems without using an MS-DOS emulator, I've provided two complete plug-and-play packages for running WordStar under Windows, one using DOSBox-X, an emulator that's still actively developed and maintained, and another using vDosPlus, which still works wonderfully but is no longer maintained.

Download the archive, and install it so that its topmost directory is located at C:\WS(WordStar expects this file location — but you can change both the drive and the directory later, if you want; I've provided instructions).

See the file -README.TXT in the archive; you'll have WordStar running on your Windows computer in a matter of minutes (note the hyphen at the beginning of the filename; there's a separate README.TXT, which is the original README that came with the program).

WordStar will also run just fine under Linux or Mac OS if you use the appropriate versions of DOSBox-X that you can get here.

I've also included many utilities that would otherwise have been lost to history, including the contents of the libraries at the CompuServe WordStar Forum; I was one of the sysops of that forum.

Although WordStar is a lean-and-mean program, written entirely in assembly language, this comprehensive archive weighs in at 460 megabytes and contains over 3,600 files. It is as complete — and is as easy to use — as I can make it.

For all the reasons I, and other writers, love WordStar, see my essay WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor.

The full 5,100-word -README.TXT file that I've included in the WordStar 7 archive is below.

—**Robert J. Sawyer**
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
August 2024

The -README File Included in the WordStar 7 Archive:

Using and Customizing WordStar for DOS

by Robert J. Sawyer

sawyer@sfwriter.com
August 2024

This document is provided in both a
plain-text version as -README.TXT and as
a WordStar document named -README.WS.

Note on PDF files: There are thirteen files with the extension .PDFin C:\WS, the topmost folder of this archive (including ASCII.PDF, DRAFT.PDF, LASERJET.PDF, and WS4.PDF).

These are not Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format files. Rather, they are WordStar's Printer Definition Files; WordStar started using the file extension .PDF before Adobe did.

The full set of WordStar manuals as Adobe PDF Portable Document Format files is in the separate folder C:\WS\MANUALS.

Viewing This File

When viewing this (or any) WordStar document, you can toggle the display of print controls and command tags on and off using the command ^OD — hold down Ctrl, hit the letter O, then hit the letter D. As with all two-letter WordStar commands, you can continue to hold down the Ctrl key when issuing the second letter, but you don't have to.

(If you're viewing -README.TXT instead of -README.WS, there are no control codes or command tags to display.)

WordStar in the Twenty-First Century

WordStar for DOS is abandonware. The company that made it is long defunct, and the software hasn't been updated since December 1992. The version provided here — WordStar for DOS 7.0 Rev. D — is the final one ever produced.

Why might you want to use such old software? See my essay WordStar: A Writer's Word Processorin the file WORDSTAR.WS, or read the online version here:

https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm

Also, please see the interview with me about why I still use WordStar contained in the file INTERVU.WS or INTERVU.TXT.

And also see my summary of WordStar's strengths in the file STRENGTH.WS or STRENGTH.TXT.

The file OLDTIMES.WS is a sample WordStar document you can play around with (it's one of my own science-fiction stories).

The WordStar File Format and Older WordStar Files

The WordStar 7.0 file format is fully documented in the file C:\WS\REF\WSFORMAT.TXT.

You can easily convert from WordStar 7.0 format to formats readable by modern wordprocessing software. See the section on Converting from WordStar to Microsoft Word below.

WordStar 7.0 uses a different file format from that used by WordStar 4.0 and below. WordStar 7.0 can read, edit, and print older WordStar files just fine, but if you save those the files under WordStar 7.0, you won't be able to read, edit, or print them under WordStar 4.0 or below.

If you accidentally save an older WordStar file in WordStar 7.0 format and want to convert it back to the format used by WordStar 4.0, use the provided command-line utility WSOLD.COM.

And if you accidentally save a plain text file in WordStar's "document" mode and find that it's now got WordStar codes in it, you can either reopen the file in WordStar's "nondocument" mode and issue ^QU to strip out those codes and then save the file again, or use the provided command-line utility WSASC.COM to convert the file back to plain text.

DOCUMENTATION

[[Using WordStar manual cover]](using-wordstar.png)

I've provided all the documentation that came with WordStar 7.0 as full-text-searchable Adobe Acrobat PDF files. They are in the folder C:\WS\MANUALS (and are also available for download further down on this page).

See also all the *.WS or *.TXT files in C:\WS and various subfolders. If a file has both a .WS and .TXT version, the former is in WordStar format and the latter is in plain text format.

(From WordStar's opening screen, you can select then H to set WordStar to temporarily only show *.WS or *.TXT files in its directory display, making them easier to find.)

README.TXT is the actual WordStar README file that came with WordStar. PATCH.LST (which I'm also providing as PATCH.TXTso that it can be opened with Windows text editors) contains extensive information on customizing WordStar.

If you've used WordStar 6.0 but not WordStar 7.0 this manual in C:\WS\MANUALS will be helpful:

[**Upgrading from a Previous Release (WordStar 7).pdf**](upgrading from a previous release %28wordstar 7%29.pdf)

And if you've used WordStar 4.0 or below, but never a later version, this manual in "C:\WS\Manuals\WordStar 5" is a very useful guide to the many new features; it's much more comprehensive that the "Upgrading from a Previous Release (WordStar 7).pdf" manual:

[**WordStar Professional Release 5 — What's New.pdf**](WordStar Professional Release 5 -- What's New.pdf)

Running WordStar on Modern Operating Systems

SHORT VERSION: if you're using Windows, create a shortcut on your desktop to this program provided as part of this archive:

C:\WS\DOSBox-X\DOSBox-X.exe

Double-click on that shortcut, and WordStar for DOS 7.0 should run. (Note that unless you set "Run as Administrator," under "Advanced" in the Shortcut, you will not be able to open or edit files in the root directory of Drive C.)

LONG VERSION: To run WordStar under Windows, Linux, or Mac operating systems, use the free and open source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox-X (not plain old DOSBox): https://dosbox-x.com

DOSBox-X has a huge configuration file. It is located here:

C:\WS\DOSBOX-X\dosbox-x.conf

The final lines in that file establish legal drive letters and also set what program will run upon booting DOSBox-X.

The line at the very end of that file is the one that causes my message about the various versions of WordStar in this archive to appear after you first exit WordStar. Simply delete it (or comment it out by adding a "#" to the beginning of the line) when you no longer wish to see that message:

@TYPE C:\WS\FIRSTRUN.TXT

The "drive" letters used by DOSBox-X don't have to correspond to the actual drives on your computer, so if you want to install WordStar somewhere other than in the C:\WSfolder (or on some drive other than C:), simply go to the end of the dosbox-x.conf file and edit the **"mount"**directives appropriately. For instance, if you'd prefer to have WordStar in D:\Old Software\WS instead of C:\WS, change the mount lines from:

mount C: C:\
mount W: C:\WS

to:

mount C: D:\Old Software
mount W: D:\Old Software\WS

Since WordStar's companion programs (such as Star Exchange, ProFinder, and MailList) expect an 80-column by 25-line screen, in the [ttf] section earlier in the dosbox-x.conffile, I've set these values ("lins" specifies number of screen lines; "cols," the number of screen columns):

lins=25
cols=80

But WordStar 7.0 itself can use any screen size equal to or larger than 80x25, so feel free to set larger values, if you wish. You can use the DOSBox-X utility 80X25.COM, located in C:\WS, to change your screen to 80 rows by 25 columns prior to invoking companion programs that require that screen size.

If you want the WordStar window to take up less than the full screen, adjust these parameters in the [ttf] section to your liking:

winperc: Specifies the window percentage for the TTF output (100 = full screen); this value is ignored if the ptsize setting is specified.

ptsize: Specifies the font point size for the TTF output. If specified (minimum: 9), it will override the winpercsetting.

In the [ttf] section of dosbox-x.conf, I've also set this value: WP = WS (for "word processor equals WordStar) to enable actual boldface and italics under WordStar. Wengier Wu very kindly added this support for WordStar to DOSBox-X (and his vDosPlus, mentioned below) at my request.

I've set DOSBox-X to use the Iosevka Fixed typeface family, but you can use any monospaced font that supports the PC-8 character set; I've provided these alternatives typeface families in the C:\WS\DOSBox-X folder: Liberation Mono, DejaVu Sans, and Free Mono; you can also use Consolas, which comes with most versions of Windows.

You can specify the fonts of your choice (separate regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic versions) in the [ttf] of dosbox-x.conf.

If for some reason DOSBox-X doesn't meet your needs, alternatives are vDosPlus(http://www.vdosplus.org) or the less-robust vDos(https://www.vdos.info). Development on vDosPlus has been discontinued, but vDos is still maintained.

This page by me is devoted to using WordStar under vDosPlus:https://sfwriter.com/ws-vdos.htm.

I have provided a complete installation of vDosPlus. To use it, create a shortcut on your desktop to this program:

C:\WS\vDosPlus\vDosPlus.exe

Double click on that shortcut, and WordStar for DOS 7.0 should run. (Note that unless you set "Run as Administrator," under "Advanced" in the Shortcut, you may not be able to open or edit files in the root directory of Drive C.)

If the text isn't razor sharp, edit the properties for the shortcut. On the "Compatibility" tab select "Change high DPI settings," then select "Program DPI" and choose "I signed into Windows" from the dropdown list. On that same screen, select "High DPI scaling override," and choose "Application" from the dropdown list.

Configuration options for vDosPlus are set in these two files:

C:\WS\vDosPlus\autoexec.txt
C:\WS\vDosPlus\config.txt

Issuing WordStar Commands

Classic WordStar commands are issued by holding down the Ctrl key while simultaneously pressing another key. WordStar indicates the Ctrl key on its menus and in its manuals with the caret symbol: ^V (the command for toggling between insert and overtype modes) means hold down both Ctrland V. ^KB (the command for marking the beginning of a block of text) means hold down Ctrl and K simultaneously and then press B; for the second key in a two-key command, you can keep the Ctrlkey down or not, whichever you prefer.

For the elegant logic behind the classic WordStar interface, see my explanation in the file WORDSTAR.WS or the online version at my website:

https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm

Different Versions of WordStar

See the file C:\WS\VERSIONS.WS(or C:\WS\VERSIONS.TXT) for information on all the many different versions of WordStar 7 I've provided in this archive. The versions principally differ in the amount of on-screen help WordStar gives you and in their color schemes:

There are many other version here, too, all described in VERSIONS.TXT.

Editing Two Documents at Once

You can open a second WordStar or text file from within WordStar's editing window with the ^OK command. When prompted, select D for "document" (a WordStar file) or N for "nondocument" (a text file that you want to keep free of WordStar formatting codes).

To make each editing window full screen (instead of each one taking up half the screen), issue ^OM and select F. To change that to the default, go to WSCHANGE menu D (WordStar), C (Other features), G (Miscellaneous), H (Size of other window), and set the value to 255.

(If you accidentally open a plain text file in "document" mode and find that it's got WordStar codes in it after you save it, reopen the file in "nondocument" mode and issue ^QU to strip out those code and then save the file again.)

Swapping CapsLock and Ctrl

The classic WordStar interface was designed so that users never have to take their hands off the home typing row; this makes WordStar much more efficient for use by touch typists than either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. (WordStar supports a mouse, function keys, and cursor keys, but they are not required for any operation.)

As noted above, the classic WordStar interface is based on holding down the Ctrl key while issuing commands. The original IBM PC keyboard had the Ctrl key just to the left of the letter A. Later keyboards moved Ctrl to a pinkie-stretching position below the left Shift key and put CapsLock next to A.

It's a lot easier to use WordStar if you swap the functions of Ctrl and CapsLock — and the included utility program SWAP.COM will do just that. You can run it at the command prompt, but if you want it to run automatically each time you use WordStar, uncomment the line calling SWAP near the end of the file C:\WS\DOSBox-X\dosbox-x.conf (or, if you're using vDosPlus, in the file C:\WS\vDosPlus\autoexec.txt).

SWAP.COM only affects your WordStar session; it doesn't change the keyboard mapping for Windows. (SWITCH.COM is identical to SWAP.COM; that was the original name WordStar gave to this utility, but if you're using the 4DOS command processor — optional under DOSBox-X; the default under vDosPlus — SWAP is an internal command and so a program with that name can't be called from the command line.)

I've also provided an alternative program that does the same thing called IBMFIX.COM.

Spellchecking a File

The version of WordStar in this archive is "WordStar for DOS North American English Version 7.0 Rev. D." By default, it uses WordStar's American English dictionary and American English thesaurus.

But I've also supplied additional dictionaries, which you can switch to on the fly from within a document by using the .lacommand followed by the DOS country-code number for that language (more dictionaries were published, I believe, but I don't have them):

.la 001 English (US) .la 044 English (UK) .la 358 Finnish .la 002 French (Canada) .la 033 French (France) .la 049 German .la 039 Italian .la 052 Spanish (Mexico) .la 034 Spanish (Spain)

If you like, you can include text such as "English (UK)" as part of the dot command as a memory aid, as I have above, but you don't have to: the bare command ".la 044" works just fine.

If you want to permanently switch the default language for your dictionary and thesaurus, you can do that easily at WSCHANGE menu D, C, G, K ("Language Default"); see Customizing WordStar below for more details.

Under both DOSBox-X and vDosPlus, there's a small problem with the cursor when spellchecking a file: if you invoke the spellchecker in "Insert" (as opposed to "Ins-off") mode, the cursor will only appear as a line at the top of the first character in a word that's not in the dictionary. (When running natively under MS-DOS, WordStar did not have this problem.)

You can workaround this by using the ^V toggle, if necessary, to switch to "Ins-off" mode before invoking the spellchecker with the usual ^QLcommand.

Alternatively, you can call the spellchecker via the included WordStar macro SPL-ALL, which, by default, is assigned to the hotkey <Shift+F3>. I have modified this macro to set "Ins-off" mode before it starts a global spellcheck.

I've also provided a new macro, SPL-REST, that checks spelling starting at the current cursor position. I've assigned this macro to the hotkey , but you can use the ^ME command to assign it (or any macro) to any hotkey your wish.

If you find the "Words Checked" dialog that displays a wordcount at the end of each spellcheck annoying, you can turn it off at WSCHANGE menu D(WordStar), C (Other features), A (Spelling check), L(Turn "Words checked" message on or off). You can always get a count of the words in your file with the ^K? command.

Copying to and from the Windows Clipboard

WordStar's ^K[ command reads in the text contents of the Windows clipboard at the cursor position.

WordStar's ^K] command copies the currently marked block to the Windows clipboard in plain-text ASCII format — but there's a bug: the final character isn't copied, so make sure to mark one more character than you actually want copied to the clipboard.

If you find the copy-from or copy-to clipboard commands aren't working, issue ^KP, which loads and abandons WordStar's printer routines and has the side effect of clearing WordStar's memory.

Customizing WordStar

To use WordStar for DOS with its default settings, just type WS (or WS and a filename) at the command prompt. But you don't have to live with those defaults; one of WordStar's great strengths is that it's hugely customizable. Run the program WSCHANGE to modify WordStar to your heart's content.

The WS.EXE provided here has been installed assuming its files will be in folder C:\WS (and a variety of subfolders below that), all of which will have been created for you if you unzipped WORDSTAR.ZIP properly.

If you want to change the drive letter or folders used by WordStar, run WSCHANGE and go to menu C (Computer), D (WordStar files), and either A (Define search paths) or B (Assign primary and secondary paths for all WordStar files).

I've provided a complete, pristine, unmodified-in-any-way WordStar installation in C:\WS\DEFAULT. See the -README.TXT file in that folder for more information.

But if you want to simply install an all-new copy of WordStar on whatever drive and in whichever folder(s) you wish, go to the C:\WS\INSTALL folder and see the instructions in the -README.TXTfile in that folder.

And full disk images of the actual 5.25-inch floppy disks WordStar was distributed on are in the folder C:\WS\INSTALL\DISKS.

Screen colors can be modified at WSCHANGE menu A (Monitor), B Video Attributes Menu), A (Select colors individually).

If you go to WSCHANGE menu A (Console Menu), A (Monitor), C (Screen sizing) and set both "Height" and "Width" to zero, the main WordStar program will auto-adapt to your screen size. This change has already been made to all the WordStar executables in C:\WS except for PRISTINE.EXE.

See [**"Installing and Customizing (WordStar 7).pdf"**](installing and customizing %28wordstar 7%29.pdf)in C:\WS\MANUALS.

Full customization details are in the file PATCH.TXT.

For information on the customizations I've already made to the versions of WordStar in this archive, see VERSIONS.WS (or VERSIONS.TXT).

To customize WordStar's screen layout while you work, issue ^OB. To make permanent changes in the screen layout go to WSCHANGE menu D(WordStar), B (Editing settings), A (Edit screen, help level). You can change also WordStar's default help level here. Personally, I like to use help level 2, have the ruler line off by default, and (on Edit Screen Menu #2) both the "Style bar" and the "Status line" at the top of the screen.

You can also change WordStar's screen colors. You do that at WSCHANGEmenu A (Console), B (Video attributes), A (Select colors individually). Note that both DOSBox-X and vDosPlus use oddball color combinations to achieve effects that WordStar natively doesn't support; these are the settings used for DOSBox-X:

I personally like WordStar to ignore case by default when doing searches. You can set WordStar's default "Find" and "Find and replace" options at WSCHANGE menu B (Editing Settings), G (Find and replace), A (Default rind a replace options).

NOTE: If you like the WordStar interface and approach to wordprocessing but would prefer a Windows program, give WordTsar by Gerald Brandt a try:

http://wordtsar.ca

My Preferred WordStar Setup

SAWYER.EXE is a version of WordStar using science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer's customizations — try it and see if you like them. They can be changed by running "WSCHANGE SAWYER" at the command line. Some of the modifications I made are documented in SAWYER.WS. I've also turned off by default many of the elements that clutter the screen: the Style Bar, the Status Line, and the Ruler Line. You can do this while editing with the ^OB command or turn them on or off by default at WSCHANGE menu D, B, A.

If you are using SAWYER.EXE instead of the default WS.EXE, you will notice that WordStar dot commands display in a different color from regular text. This is accomplished by having the default WordStar Paragraph Style in SAWYER.EXE set to "Sawyer Defaults," and having the strikeout character set to a blank space at WSCHANGE menu B (Printer), C (Printing Defaults), I (Strikeout Character).

A useful side-effect of this is that document and nondocument files now display text in different colors (cyan for documents and green for nondocuments). "Documents" are WordStar files; "Nondocuments" are plain-text ASCII files.

Unlike the default WS.EXE, SAWYER.EXE has WordStar set to always display dot commands. You can change this on the fly by issuing ^OBwithin a document or change it permanently at WSCHANGE menu D(WordStar), B (Edit screen, help level), A (Menu #1),

Note that SAWYER.EXE has autosave turned on; it will save your document automatically after ten minutes of keyboard inactivity. You can turn this off, if you wish, by running "WSCHANGE SAWYER" at the command line, and then selecting menu D (WordStar), C (Miscellaneous), I(Auto-backup), and changing the value from 10 (i.e., ten minutes) to 0 (zero, which disables automatic backup).

SAWYER.EXE also has WordStar's backup files (which are given the extension .BAK) hidden from its directory display, but they're still there. You can customize which file types are hidden at WSCHANGE menu C (Computer), E (Directory Display), C (File types excluded from directory).

To easily compare PRISTINE.EXE — an unmodified version of WordStar — and SAWYER.EXE, run the file DEMO.BAT.

See VERSIONS.WS or VERSIONS.TXT for information about all the different versions of WordStar I've provided here. Those files also describe the ways in which the WordStar executables in C:\WS have been modified from the standard defaults.

Printing

For printing, I simply have WordStar "print to disk" with the output going to the folder C:\WS\TEMP. I have the free utility PrintFilePrinterwatch that folder. It automatically produces an Acrobat PDF file whenever WordStar "prints" a file to that folder; that PDF file can then be printed on any modern printer. I've provided PrintFilePrinter as part of this archive; see C:\WS\PrinFilePrinter for more information (and make sure to set C:\WS\TEMP as the watched folder).

Among the WordStar printer definition files included in this version of WordStar (you can see them all by issuing ^P?) are these:

LASERJET.PDF: a LaserJet print driver that sends its output to the temporary file C:\WS\TEMP\WORDSTAR.PCL.

LJ6DTP.PDF: same as above, but with enhanced typography for desktop publishing; see LJ6DTP.WS for details

HP4.PDF: same as LASERJET.PDF except that it sends its output to the physical LPT1: printer port on your computer

PS: a generic PostScript driver

(Yes, it's awkward that WordStar's "printer definition files" and Adobe's "portable document format" files both use the same file extension, .PDF. For what it's worth, WordStar starting using that extension in 1988; Adobe didn't start using it until 1992.)

Again, note that LASERJET.PDF, LJ6DTP.PDF, and PS.PDF have all been modified (with WordStar's PDFEDIT utility) to send their output to C:\WS\TEMP rather than to a printer port so that PrintFilePrinter can produce Adobe PDF files from their output, as discussed above.

Also note that ASCII.PDF and ASC256.PDF have had their default print-to-disk output file names changed from ASCII.WS and ASC256.WS to the more-appropriate ASCII.TXT and ASC256.TXT, allowing their output to be opened with Windows text editors.

If you print a file that contains a .PIX graphics tag (such as can be inserted with the ^P* command), I suggest exiting WordStar once printing is finished and then reloading WordStar again. WordStar can be unstable under both DOSBox-X and vDosPlus after printing graphics. Better safe than sorry. Note that the WordStar document version of this -README file contains a .PIX graphics tag at the very beginning for printing the WordStar wordmark/logo.

The Euro Currency Symbol

WordStar was last updated in 1992, seven years before the euro currency symbol was adopted in 1999. I've modified three WordStar Printer Definition Files ("PDFs") to nonetheless support the euro symbol: LASERJET.PDF, LJ6DTP.PDF, and HP4.PDF. This was done by patching these PDFs to replace character 9E from the PC8 symbol set, which was the peseta symbol, with character BA from the Roman 9 symbol set, released in 1999, which is the euro character. (The peseta was the Spanish unit of currency before Spain switched to using the euro.)

If you see the euro character right here €, then you're all set to go (even if you don't see it, the above-named PDFs will still print it). If you don't see it and you are running WordStar under DOSBox-X, edit the dosbox-X.conf configuration file and under the [render] section set "euro=158" and WordStar (and all other programs) will show the euro instead of the peseta symbol.

To insert the euro symbol in a WordStar document, access the ^P0(^P-zero) "Extended Character" menu and either type the code for it (158) or just click on the euro symbol with your mouse.

Converting from WordStar to Microsoft Word

To convert files from WordStar format to something a modern word processor can read, use the provided Star Exchange program (a rebranded version of Software Bridge). You can either run it from WordStar's opening menu (press A then S to activate it) or as a standalone program:

C:\WS\CONVERT\CONVERT.EXE

Alternatively, you can use the program Word for Word, also abandonware. It's in C:\WS\WFW. If you'd like Windows wrapper for it, so that you can run it directly under Windows, run this file provided by Edward Mendelson:

"C:\WS\LegacyFileConverter\LegacyFileConverter Installer.exe"

Documentation for LegacyFileConverter is here:

https://mendelson.org/legacyfileconverter.html

You may find that converting from WordStar to RTF (rich text format) works better for import into modern word processors than does the ancient version of the Microsoft Word DOC format these programs support.

You can also try the old ConvertPerfect utility from WordPerfect; it's in C:\WS\CVWP.

And another conversion utility, WS-CON, is in C:\WS\WS-CON.

Finally, my own very elaborate, very sophisticated, and very idiosyncratic system for converting WordStar documents to RTF can be found in C:\WS\RTF-RJS. This system may or may not work for you and may or may not require customization.

Using Batch Files

DOSBox-X doesn't like the way WordStar terminates after it has edited a file, so in batch files, follow each instance of calling WS.EXE with theses two lines:

on break goto AfterWS1
:AfterWS1

(Increment the number for successive invocations of WordStar later in the same batch file.)

This will bypass the "Cancel batch job?" error DOSBox-X throws. Neither vDosPlus nor vDos have this problem. See the file DEMO.BAT (renamed to <demo.txt>for the version on this website) for an example of this workaround.

There's Lots More Here!

Have a look in each folder in this archive; in many of them, you'll find a -README.TXT or -README.WS file giving further information.

WordStar came with a number of "Companion Programs," all of which I've provided (including PC-Outline, which came with WordStar 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0, but was dropped in 7.0; it's in C:\WS\PCO). See the Companion Programs manual in C:\WS\MANUALS. I find ProFinder(in C:\WS\PF) particularly useful; just type PF at the command prompt to give it a try.

You'll find a bunch of useful utility programs in C:\WS\UTIL.

And there are lots of other goodies, too!

WordStar Manuals

[[Using WordStar manual cover]](using-wordstar.png)

I've provided all the documentation that came with WordStar 7.0 as full-text-searchable Adobe Acrobat PDF files. They are in the folder C:\WS\MANUALS.

These Acrobat PDF files are fully text-searchable. They're all included in the WordStar 7 Archive, but you can also access them individually here:

Core WordStar 7 Documentation

WordStar 7 Companion Programs

As distributed, all the "companion programs" are documented in a single massive manual:

For ease of use, I've also created individual manuals for each of the companion programs:

Other Manuals

I'm also providing the documentation for WordStar Professional Release 5. If you've used WordStar 4.0 or below before, the "What's New" manual will be particularly helpful to you; almost all of it also applies to WordStar 7.0 (although WordStar 7.0's pulldown menu system is very different — and much superior — and WordStar 7.0 has many additional new features, which are document in the Upgrading from a Previous Release manual provided above).

I also made a giant 1,078-page combined manual with all the WordStar 7 documentation in a single PDF file for ease of searching for all references to a term:

And I made these two manuals be extracting all the relevant portions from the WordStar 7.0 documentation:

For More Information

See the various *.WS and *.TXT files in C:\WS and its subfolders.

See my page about WordStar here: https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm

And see my page about using WordStar under vDosPlus, which has a lot of technical information about WordStar, here: https://sfwriter.com/ws-vdos.htm

Finally, if you need any help, feel free to email me — Robert J. Sawyer — at sawyer@sfwriter.com

WordStar Credits

WordStar was originally released in 1978. The program was entirely coded and the interface designed by Rob Barnaby. Seymour Rubinstein had hired him to do that, and Seymour marketed the program.

Rob Barnaby's original codebase was built upon until WordStar 3.3. Starting with WordStar 4.0, an all-new codebase was written by Peter Mierau. John Morris was the lead programmer on WordStar 6.0. Joe Mastersand John Nolan were the lead programmers on WordStar 7.0.

Hidden in WS.EXE, only visible with a hex editor, are the credits for WordStar for DOS 7.0. Here they are; sadly, most of the full names or last names are lost to history, although I've put in square brackets the ones I can remember — but they all have my thanks for creating the best wordprocessing program the world has ever seen:

Programming: corbett, jims, joem [Joe Masters], johna, johnn [John Nolan], laurieo, markh, myles [Myles Cagney], timl, tomp [Tom Pinch], victoriaa.

Printers: charles [Charles W. Stevenson], markhen [Mark Hennessy].

Testing: adriano [Adriano de la Cruz], chrism, donc, hunterm [R. Hunter Morey], jimsu, johnt, karenp [Karen Partovi], kimp, lisav, mardi, maryv, normm, pattia, rick, sandram.

Writers: harrieto, rachels, trudyf, carolinem, debbieg, kathya.

Editors: beverlyj, sande, frankc.

Production: shauneyl, mikef, janeg.

Design: melanie [Melanie Allen], marylld [Maryll Diefenderfer], susans.

Support: james [James Burton], kevinb [Kevin Baribault], richz [Rich Zuris].

Thanks to: bobbie, bradyb, charlotte, helen, royk [Roy Klein], WABbits, beta testers.

Managers: alexh, lisal [Lisa Lennenkohl], dani, davidp, georgia, tanas.

"WABits" were the members of the WordStar Advisory Board, a power-users panel convened by me and reporting directly to the CEO of WordStar International (formerly MicroPro), the company that published WordStar; the members were Chuck Christenson, Jim Gainsley, Franklin R. Haber, Kevin M. Lee, Mark C. Petersen, Robert J. Sawyer, and Ed Zollars.

About Robert J. Sawyer

[[Robert J. Sawyer holding WordStar mug]](rob-with-wordstar-mug.png)

Who the heck is Robert J. Sawyer? He's a former sysop of the WordStar Forum on the CompuServe Information Service and, as noted above, he was the convenor of the WordStar Advisory Board, a panel of power users that reported directly to the CEO of WordStar International.

A member of the Order of Canada, Rob is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer. He has written every one of his twenty-five novels with WordStar, which he has been using since 1983, starting with WordStar version 2.26 on an Osborne 1 CP/M computer.

You can read one of his short stories in the file OLDTIMES.WS. His massive website — all hand-coded in HTML in WordStar's nondocument mode — is at https://sfwriter.com.

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