Downloads
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Downloads for WordStar
This page gives you information about files and utilities that can be downloaded for use with WordStar.
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TLC's WordStar 7 ftp site general files are here
(Hosted on this site, with TLC's permission) |
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TLC's WordStar 7 ftp site printing
files are here (Hosted on this site, with TLC's permission) |
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TLC's WordStar 2000 ftp site files are here
(Hosted on this site, with TLC's permission) |
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CompuServe's WordStar Forum can be accessed through the forum centre vintage computing forum. | |
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There are some Icon files for use with MS Windows here | |
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WS-CON converts WordStar documents into other formats. Supported output formats are HTML, RTF, Text, and Unix Text. There are versions in English and Bahasa Malayu | |
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The HABit WordStar Converter WSCONV converts WordStar documents into either Text or HTML. Formatting preservation and character conversion options are provided as well as a batch conversion mode. | |
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WSRTF converts WordStar 5 and 6 files into RTF - this can then be imported into many other word processors. | |
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WS2HTML Converts WordStar documents into HTML, full details are here | |
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WSUtils provides various WordStar utilities for converting files. This collection is detailed here | |
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The WSX File translation utility is described here | |
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EXT2WS converts extended characters (ASCII 127-255) to WordStar extended characters, the description and link are here |
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WordStar Inset PIX to PCX graphics converter pix2pcx will help you recover bitmapped PIX files from old WordStar documents. | |
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DEFPTH updates WordStar's internally stored drive letter if you need to relocate it from drive C: to drive D: | |
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PrintFile is a freeware utility program that will enable you to print files fast and easily | |
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Utility to allow the use of WordStar commands in Microsoft Word? The WordStar Command Emulator for Word 97 and 2000 is here |
WS-CON
English Version
This usefull freeware utility converts a WordStar file into either HTML, RTF, or plain Text formats. The program was written by Yohanes Nugroho of Indonesia and all the prompts were in Malay. A new version with English prompts is now available (Feb 2001) from this site.
The programs and sources come under the GPL, for more information read the file COPYING.TXT supplied in the distribution zip file.
Download wsconen.zip (approx 50Kb) - Zip format (includes source code)
Program ini berguna bagi Anda yang ingin mengubah file-file Wordstar Anda yang lama menjadi file dengan format yang lebih umum pada saat ini. Saat ini format HTML didukung oleh banyak aplikasi di berbagai platform, format RTF didukung oleh hampir semua aplikasi for Ms Windows, sehingga Anda akan lebih mudah mempertu- karkan data Anda.
Program ini dan source codenya ada dibawah lisensi GPL.
WS-CON
v 1.01 : Konverter File wordstar ke TEXT/HTML/RTF
Hak cipta (c) 1999 Yohanes Nugroho
HABit WordStar Converter
The HABit WordStar Converter WSCONV runs in Windows rather than DOS, so may be an easier alternative for non-DOS users who need access to old WordStar files. The converter is available in two versions as detailed below:
Windows 3
The 16-bit (Windows 3.x) version is designed for WordStar 4 files, but will also cope with earlier WordStar versions.
The program gives options for replacing soft-spaces, etc., with hard-spaces to keep the layout with a fixed-pitch font, and for converting WordStar extended characters to the Windows equivalent. Full details for installation and use are included in the downloads.
If you use the Windows 3 version of the converter to convert files from WordStar versions later than version 4, the file preview may not display the file contents. If the document is simple, and doesn't use features introduced after WordStar 4, such as paragraph styles, you may just be left with some formatting and other code in the converted result, otherwise you could be left with an unusable result.
Windows 9x/2000/XP & NT
The 32-bit (Windows 9x, 2000, XP, & NT) version 3 converter (updated March 2005) has support for most DOS WordStar versions including WordStar 2000. Output can be in plain text or HTML, the HTML output preserving character attributes such as boldface, etc. In addition to the two output formats, there are two conversion options:
The keep layout option will try to preserve formatting (see the table below). This option is only applicable to plain text output, not HTML.
The Convert Extended Characters (ECS) option will convert the WordStar for DOS IBM extended character set to the Windows ANSI character set based on Latin-1 coding. Where there isn't a matching character in the normal Windows fonts the nearest equivalent will be used. HTML conversions use special HTML characters to display characters in the Extended ASCII range
Footnotes, are changed to end notes.
There is also a batch conversion option to convert all files with the same file extension in a directory.
The conversions are summarised in the tables below. Point at the symbols for more details on a specific feature.
From WordStar DOS to Plain Text |
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Feature: |
3.31 |
4.0 |
5.5 |
6.0 |
7.0 |
2K |
Notes | |
| Soft Returns |  |
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} Keep } layout } option |
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| Blank lines | |
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| Multiple spaces | |
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| Text attributes |  |
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Not applicable | |
| Tabs |  |
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| Centering | |
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| Footnotes | |
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As end notes | |
| Extended characters | |
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ECS option | |
From WordStar DOS to HTML |
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Feature: |
3.31 |
4.0 |
5.5 |
6.0 |
7.0 |
2K |
Notes | |
| Soft Returns | |
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Ignored | |
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| Multiple spaces | |
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| Text attributes | |
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| Tabs | |
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As spaces | |
| Centering | |
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| Footnotes | |
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As end notes | |
| Extended characters | |
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ECS option | |
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Yes |
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N/A |
Download WSCONV for Windows 3.1 (105Kb) - Zip format
Download WSCONV for Windows 9x/2000/XP/NT (135Kb) - Zip format
WSUtils
This free collection of tools written by Peter Mierau contains the following files:
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wsasc.com |
Converts a WordStar file to plain ASCII format. For any version of WordStar through 7.0 | |
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ascws.com |
Converts an ASCII file to WordStar format, with soft returns within paragraphs. For any version of WordStar through 7.0 | |
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wsbit.com |
Removes the high-order bits from old WordStar files. Newer versions of WordStar (after 5.0) do not require these bits, and occasionally get confused by them | |
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wsold.com |
Converts a new WordStar file (versions 5.0 through 7.0) to the old WordStar format (versions 3.0 through 4.0) | |
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wsfree.com |
Frees older versions of WordStar 5.x from a lock-up situation. This TSR must be run prior to WordStar | |
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wsread.me |
Information file |
Download wsutil.zip (approx 8.25Kb) - Zip format
WSX
This shareware tool which was written for WordStar 4 gives the following functions:
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WordStar to ASCII |
WordStar 4.0 does provide a driver to convert WordStar files into ASCII, but there are no options. However, WSX is 10 times as fast | |
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ASCII to WordStar |
Converts an ASCII file to WordStar format - with options for:
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WordStar to Format |
If you have ever been annoyed with the cursor popping over to column 1 when working on a table, this process is for you. It will buffer all lines by appending innocuous soft spaces out to the right margin of your choice. Then when you use the up and down arrows, the cursor will not pop to the left on a short line. When you are done, you can also remove them. Here are all the options:
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ASCII to Format |
Sometimes you may get a document from another word processor or program that doesn't completely conform to the ASCII standard for the end-of-line sequence of CR/LF. Before you convert to WordStar, you should use this process with these options:
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Download wsx21a.exe (approx 45.2Kb) - self extracting .exe format
EXT2WS
This utility converts a text file containing ASCII Extended Characters to one containing WordStar Extended Characters.
Download ext2ws.zip (approx 25Kb) - Zip format
WordStar-to-HTML Converter
Andrew Stephenson's Freeware Beta (NB) release of a WordStar-to-HTML converter is from this site or from:
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/dos/apps/editors/ws2html.zip
The latest version [0.63 beta] was posted on 22 April 2002
Description:
WS2HTML for DOS ("the Program") reads WordStar-for-DOS documents, converting major elements to HTML 3.2 counterparts. Intended to understand all WS-DOS formats including Non-Doc, it tries to conform to the Wilbur Standard. Much effort has been put into ensuring HTML the Program produces is efficient.
Conversion is neither slavish nor comprehensive. Where WS handles discrete pages with running headers, numbering and such, HTML deals in text passages often spanning the equivalent of many pages. Compromises are inevitable. A few are pragmatic, such as allowing font changes where officially forbidden.
To assist those users whose concept of internationalised character sets goes beyond CP437/CP850, source document codepages can be switched. Means are also provided whereby characters missing from the source codepage can be synthesised in the HTML output.
Improvements since release 0.50 include:
- dot commands to control comment inclusion, hyperlinks, codepage switching in-document and HTML headers (also via para styles)
- INI file colours specification
- some commands revised
- radical rewrite of documentation
- other refinements
WordStar-to-RTF Converter
WSRTF by David Chester will convert WordStar 5.x and WordStar 6.x files into RTF so that they can be opened in other word processors.
Description:
This program works on documents created by WordStar 5.x and 6.x. Supported features include bold, underline, center and left alignments, variable page margins, spaces-to-tabs conversion, manually-entered page number conversion, and smart handling of corrupted files.
Usage: WSRTF <filename>
Where <filename> is the name of the WordStar source file. The output file has the same name with an added .RTF extension. This output file can be read and manipulated by most contemporary word processors, including Microsoft Word, Sun's StarOffice, and many others.
At this time, columns formatting, headers, footers, and page numbers are not supported.
Questions and concerns: David Chester
Download wsrtf.zip (approx 42Kb) - Zip format
PIX2PCX
Most conversion programs don't convert the illustrations and PIX files from WordStar can be a particular problem.pix2pcx was written to solve this problem for bit-mapped PIX graphics. It reads an Inset PIX file and outputs a PCX file. Unsupported PIX formats generate an error message.
The program is free and available as a Windows executable, and as a tar archive for Linux users who will need to compile it on their system. The tar archive also contains the Windows executable and the full source code including Windows Visuall C++ project files. If you're in to compiling on Windows you need the tar archive.
To use it, simply change to the program directory and type:
pix2pcx filename.pix
If the file is a supported type you will get a new file called filename.pcx, if not the program will report that the file type is not supported.
Linux users will need to extract the tar archive to a new directory, cd into the directory and type ./build to compile the program. Thereafter, use is as above.
pix2pcx - Windows executable (107Kb) - Zip format
pix2pcx - Complete, including source code (325Kb) - tar.gz format
DEFPTH
This batch file helps you to move WordStar from one disk drive to another.
You can copy your WordStar installation from one disk to another, but
you must keep the root path the same: i.e., if the original was in C:\WS7
then the copied version must also be in C:\WS7 - on the new disk.
WordStar stores it's file paths internally, so if you move it you need
to reset all the paths. DEFPTH helps you to change the drive letter if
you must change the installed drive: make a backup first!.
So if you need to move WordStar from C:\WS7 to D:\WS7 do so, then copy
DEFPTH.BAT into D:\WS7 and run it as follows:
D:\WS7> DEFPTH d <CR>
Note: No colon after the new drive letter!
DEFPTH only changes the drive letter in the Search Paths section of WordStar,
not the directory it's installed in. It would be difficult to add that
feature because of the unknown length of what is there now.
You can manually change the paths by running WSCHANGE, then following
the menu option sequence: C, D, A, and then each of the 16 possible path
letters in turn.
Download DEFPTH.BAT (approx 1Kb) - Text (DOS Batch file) format
PrintFile
PrintFile is a freeware utility program that will enable you to print
files fast and easily.
Selection of which files to print can be made by the normal Windows file
selection dialog, or by Drag and Drop operations with one or several
files. The latter facilitates batch printing of files.
PrintFile can also act as a print spooler, watching a specified
directory for files. Whenever a file appears in that directory it will
automatically be printed. This is the most useful aspect of PrintFile
for WordStar users.
If you have a printer driver that is suitable for the printer, but are having problems getting documents to print because the printer is connected to the PC through a USB port instead of a printer port, you can print to file in a specified folder and have PrintFile redirect it to the printer for you.
If you have a printer that isn't supported by WordStar (5 or later) you can install GhostScript or some other PostScript to Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format, not WordStar Printer Deffinition File) converter. Print to a file using a PostScript driver and let GhostScript generate a PDF for you and print this. If your PDF converter cannot automatically watch the folder PrintFile can do it for you.
Full details and instructions are in the enclosed readme file. The download includes both 16 and 32 bit versions of the program to support all versions of Windows from 3.1 onwards.
PrintFile is hosted here with kind permission of its creator Perer Lerup. Go to the PrintFile Web site.
Download PrintFile (approx 200Kb) - Zip format
Copyright © 1999-2004 Michael Petrie, United Kingdom.