In folder C:\WS, you'll find these versions of WordStar: WS.EXE: a mostly default installation but with minor customizations made by Robert J. Sawyer, the person who compiled this WordStar archive. This is the version you should try first. The help level is set to 4, meaning you'll have access to full CUA-compliant Windows-style pulldown menus, in addition to the classic WordStar control-key interface. The screen colors are set to what WordStar's publisher called "Color - alternate palette #2 (underlining monitors)," slightly modified by Rob so that bold, italic, bold-italic, underlining, and strikeout all show properly under DOSBox-X. The other customizations Rob has made are listed at the end of this file. WS4.EXE is identical to WS.EXE. WS2.EXE: identical to WS.EXE, except the default help level is set to 2, so that there are no pulldown menus and WordStar menus are only displayed if you press one of the WordStar menu prefixes (^K, ^Q, ^O, ^P, or ^M) and then hesitate. If you've used a version of WordStar prior to WordStar 7, this will seem quite familiar to you. WS3.EXE: identical to WS.EXE, except the default help level is set to 3 (so that classic menus using WordStar's native command interface are always displayed -- useful when first learning WordStar). WSRJS.EXE: These versions are identical to the above, except WS4RJS.EXE: that they use a custom color scheme created by Rob WS3RJS.EXE: that is less harsh on the eyes than the default WS2RJS.EXE: WordStar one. PRISTINE.EXE: an almost completely unmodified version of WordStar 7.0, which, frankly, has neither the look nor the feel of classic WordStar. (Rob has set it to use Advance Page Preview files in the folder C:\WS\DEFAULT\APP, though, so they won't get mixed in with the superior ones he's created that are used by the other versions provided here.) SAWYER.EXE: WordStar 7.0 at help level 2 with a screen display and default settings extensively customized by Robert J. Sawyer. It's designed to be both easy on the eyes and have a screen mostly free of clutter; see the file SAWYER.WS for a discussion of some of the changes to the screen display. (In any of the versions of WordStar provided here, you can turn on or off screen elements on the fly with the ^OB command or permanently change them at WSCHANGE menu D,B,A.) RJSMACRO.EXE: A version of SAWYER.EXE that uses the WordStar macros in C:\WS\MACROS\SAWYER instead of the default folder C:\WS\MACROS, provided so that you can look at the macro code Rob has written (via the ^MD macro edit/create command), in case it's of any use if you decide to write your own. (If you want to learn more about WordStar macros, see the discussion beginning on page 12-21 of the manual Reference (WordStar 7).pdf in C:\WS\MANUALS.) have a look at the files in C:\WS\MACROS\HOLYMAC.) WSVDOS.EXE: Use this version if you're running WordStar under vDosPlus instead of DOSBox-X. Once you've decided which version you like best (and have customized it to your heart's content), simply copy that versions executable (for instance, WS2.EXE) to WS.EXE, overwriting the existing version. That version will then load each time you start a new DOSBox-X session. Alternatively, you can change the name of the WordStar executable DOSBox-X calls; that's done at the very end of the massive DOSBox-X configuration file, C:\WS\DOSBOX-X\dosbox-X.conf. You can also remove this line, which provides the help message about WordStar versions after you terminate WordStar for the first time in a DOSBox-X session: @TYPE C:\WS\FIRSTRUN.TXT ================================================================= THE MINIMAL CUSTOMIZATIONS TO WS.EXE MADE BY ROBERT J. SAWYER: * Modifying WordStar's color scheme so that under DOSBox-X and vDosPlus true italics and boldface can be shown. This was done at WSCHANGE menu A,B,A. * Setting WordStar so that it will autosize its display to whatever number of columns and rows your system happens to be using; by default, WordStar is set to use an 80-column by 25- row screen, and if your system has a different screen size, WordStar won't display properly. This was done at WSCHANGE menu A,A,C by setting both "Height" and "Width" to zero (a trick that is not documented in WSCHANGE's help). [For DOSBox-X users, screen dimensions are set in the file C:\WS\DOSBOX-X\dosbox-X.conf in the [ttf] section by the values given for "lins" (number of lines) and "cols" (number of columns); for vDosPlus users, you can adjust screen dimensions by changing the values set for "LINS" and "COLS" in the file C:\WS\VDOSPLUS\AUTOEXEC.TXT.] * Setting the pathing so that printer files are in C:\WS\PRINTERS, Advanced Page Preview files are in C:\WS\APP, and WordStar macros are in C:\WS\MACROS, instead of all being lumped together into C:\WS; splitting "Companion" programs (TelMerge, MailList, and ProFinder) into separate folders, instead of all being lumped together in C:\WS\OPTIONS; and splitting the Inset graphics-integration program and the Hijaak graphics-conversion overlay into separate folders C:\WS\INSET and C:\WS\HIJAAK, instead Hijaak also being in C:\WS\INSET). This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,D. * Configuring the key to move from field to field in dialog boxes (instead of closing the box), which was how it worked in all versions of WordStar prior to 7. This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,B,H,2,D. * Turning on support for the and keys. This was done at WSCHANGE menu A,D,C. * Changing the default paragraph style sheet name from "Body Text" to "WordStar Defaults." This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,A,F,B. * Changing the behavior of the ^QX command (which goes to the bottom of the screen) from going to the far rightmost text on the last line to the first column on the last line). This was done as WSCHANGE menu D,B,H,H. * Turning on the prompt for choosing whether to edit a document or a nondocument (plain ASCII text file) when opening a second WordStar editing window with ^OK. This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,C,G,G. * Eliminating the two-second delay to show the WordStar splash screen each time the program is booted. This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,C,G,B. * Turning off the "Can't find that file" prompt, which annoyingly appears whenever you try to create a new file. This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,B,A,2,I. * Turning off the automatic printing of page numbers at the bottom of each page. This was done at WSCHANGE menu B,C,2,A. * Setting page margins appropriate to standard documents (one inch on each side). This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,B,A. * Turning on definitions during spellcheck. This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,C,C. * Changing the main spelling buffer from (-1), which lets the speller eat up all available memory, to 100 kilobytes, to limit the speller's memory usage to that amount. This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,C,D. * Increasing the unerase buffer from the default 500 bytes to 8000 bytes. This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,C,H. * Changing the default find and find-and-replace options from none to "UA," meaning "ignore case" and "align paragraph after replace." This was done at WSCHANGE menu D, B, G, A. * Having the insert-mode cursor be a block and the overtype-mode cursor be an underscore, instead of the opposite. This was done at WSCHANGE menu A,C,F. I've further tweaked the default cursor shapes by going to WSCHANGE menu E, typing =, and changing the first six bytes from the values of 07 00 07 06 to 05 02 04 07 to deal with the bug described in "SPELLCHECKING A FILE" in C:\WS\-README.WS. * Changing the overlap when scrolling by screens with ^R or ^C (or and ) to be zero lines (no overlap). This was done by going to WSCHANGE menu E, typing =, then scnovr, and changing the first byte from FF to 00. Search on "scnovr" in file PATCH.TXT for details. * Making the command-in-progress indicator (such as ^QU when reformatting a document) appear in the title bar even at help level 4 (where it's normally suppressed). This was done for all versions, including PRISTINE.EXE, by using a hex-debugging tool to change the following bytes in the main program file (WS.EXE, PRISTINE.EXE, and so on): ============================= Hex Old Change Offset Value To ============================= 34C2D 74 90 34C2E 63 90 * Also: Rob has installed higher-resolution on-screen fonts (that he created) for Advanced Page Preview in C:\WS\APP, and he's edited the preview control file FONTID.CTL in C:\WS\APP so that these fonts will be used by all versions except PRISTINE.EXE. In FONTID.CTL, he also specified that the WordStar Graphics Driver VESA1024.WGD should be used, which makes the preview display come up at 1024x768 pixels instead of the default VGA resolution of 640x480 pixels. File C:\WS\APP\DEFAULT.CTL is a backup of the original FONTID.CTL with the as-shipped default settings. (vDosPlus users will find preview files in C:\WS\APP\VDOSPLUS; vDosPlus only supports VGA preview resolution.) ================================================================= DEFAULT VERSION AND COMPLETELY FRESH INSTALLATIONS: C:\WS\DEFAULT: this folder contains an absolutely pristine install of WordStar 7.0 for DOS with no modifications whatsoever. However, it will not run from that folder; WS.EXE has internal pathing to its supporting files, and this version has them set to C:\WS and a suite of subfolders. The pathing assignments can be changed at WSCHANGE menu C,D. C:\WS\INSTALL: this folder contains WSSETUP.COM and copies of the original 3.5-inch floppy disc that WordStar 7 was distributed on. Copy these files to the root directory (WSSETUP.COM will not run from a subfolder) of any drive and run WSSETUP to create a completely fresh installation of WordStar. Use this serial number: 33787979. -- Robert J. Sawyer sawyer@sfwriter.com August 2024