Introduction

The hot keys used to run your macro programs in WordStar 7 for DOS stop functioning.

Reason

There are two possible reasons for this problem:

1. The hot key buffer size (HANMAX) is too small.
2. The WSHOTKEY.OVR file is corrupt.

Solution Overview

The first thing to try, is increasing the hot key buffer size. If this fails to solve the problem you will need to restore a new copy of the WSHOTKEY.OVR file. The steps involved in these tasks are detailed below.

Increase Macro Hot Key Buffer Size

1. Run WSCHANGE
2. Select option C - Computer
3. Select option C - Memory usage
4. Look for the setting for option G: Hot key buffer size (records) - HANMAX
   
   By default the value of HANMAX will be 7
5. If the value of HANMAX is 7 select option G to edit the value
6. Type a new value of 8 and press the enter key to accept the change
7. Type X to finish with the Memory usage menu
8. Type X to finish with the Computer menu
9. Type X to finish the Installation
10. Type Y to accept the changes and update your WS.EXE program
11. Test the change to see if the macro hot keys are now working again

Restore WSHOTKEY.OVR

If the problem persists after resetting the size of the buffer, you probably have a corrupted WSHOTKEY.OVR file. If so, you will need to delete the existing file and extract the original version from your distribution disks.

Restoring the original version of the WSHOTKEY.OVR file will result in all the assigned hotkeys being reset to the default values.

Note: Before restoring the file start WordStar and make a record of all of your assigned hot keys before deleting the WSHOTKEY.OVR file.

1. Insert Disk 1 of your WordStar installation disks into Drive A:
2. If you are working in Windows 9x, Me, or NT, open a MS DOS-Prompt window from the Start > Accesories menu
   
   If you are working in Windows 2000 or XP3, open a Command Prompt window from the Start > All Programs > Accesories menu
3. In DOS, or in the the DOS shell window opened in step 2, type: A: and press the enter key
4. At the A:> prompt, type:
   
   COPYWS A: C:\WS WSHOTKEY.OVR
   
   Note: If WordStar is not installed in C:\WS you will need to modify this part of the command to suit where your copy of WordStar is installed
5. The program will tell you which disk it needs to obtain the compressed file from. Insert this disk and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the decompression.
6. Start WordStar and re-enter your hot key settings