WordStar

WordStar was a word processor application, published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system (but later ported to DOS) that enjoyed a massive, and dominant, market share during the early-to-mid-1980s. Seymour I. Rubinstein was the principal owner of the company.

Description

WordStar made editing of what it called "non-document" files easy. A ruler was provided above uniformly spaced characters, making it easy to edit data files to be read in to programs such as SPSS. This "non-document" mono-spaced option made it easy in the 1980s to work offline with data from mainframe computers. The "document" file, on the other hand, was its own type of file that kept track of non-break lines with a high-bit code. These were easily translated into another file by using a translator (which could be self-written).

WordStar also featured add-in programs such as MailMerge, which allowed a document such as a business letter to be printed for different recipients while appearing to be individually addressed, and SpellStar, a spell checker. These were revolutionary features for personal computer users in the early-to-mid-1980s. It also had glaring weaknesses, such as an inability to reformat line justification as the text was typed.

Although out of production for over a decade, WordStar has left an odd legacy: a large number of text editor programs running under MSDOS, Linux, and other UNIX variants, can emulate the WordStar keyboard commands consisting of Ctrl-key combinations. The popular Turbo Pascal compiler used WordStar keyboard commands in its IDE editor. Well-known commands to WordStar users were the Ctrl-S/E/D/X "diamond" for basic cursor movement, as well as Ctrl-A/F (word left/right) and Ctrl-R/C (page up/down).

(It's even possible to download a WordStar Keyboard Command Emulator for current versions of Microsoft Word (2003), but the sensation will not be exactly the same as using WordStar on a mid-1980s PC XT-era keyboard, where the Ctrl key was located where the Caps-Lock key is now — unless, like some diehards from that era, you remap your keyboard to swap Ctrl and Caps-Lock.)

The demise

WordStar lost considerable market share in the late 1980s to WordPerfect, the default setting of which used a smaller portion of the screen for menus and had a much cleaner, uncluttered look. WordPerfect also used the same key sequences as a popular line of dedicated word processor computers, the Wang systems. This helped it gain favor among secretaries.

The company that produced WordStar was also notorious for its unfriendliness to its established user-base and its lack of technical support. It resisted making improvements to its program based on suggestions from its users and it virtually ignored pleas for help from its customers. One of the features that first endeared the newly competing WordPerfect to many users was the free and unlimited time that its tech support would give to users, even to people who could not prove they had actually purchased their copy. This was a major favor in the word-of-mouth success of WordPerfect that eventually engulfed WordStar.

The first DOS version of WordStar was a direct port of the CP/M version, and therefore only used 64K of RAM even though DOS supported up to 640K. Users quickly learned they could make this version of WordStar run dramatically faster by using the ability of DOS to create a "virtual disk" in RAM and copy the WordStar overlay files into it; WordStar would still swap like mad, but it would be swapping from elsewhere in RAM instead of a floppy disk.

Notably wordstar was the last commercial wordprocessor that supported CP/M. Release 4, the final CP/M compatible version was sold with 8" floppy disk format as a default.

Like many other producers of successful DOS applications, WordStar delayed far too long before deciding to make a version for the commercially groundbreaking Windows 3.0. When it finally arrived on October 1, 1991 WordStar for Windows 1.0 was well ahead of the competition in terms of features and usability, and it even included many features normally only found in desktop publishing packages. However, its delayed launch meant that Microsoft Word had already firmly established itself as the corporate standard during the two previous years.

Filename extensions

• DOS WordStar files by default have no extension; some users adopted their own conventions, such as the letters WS followed by the version number (e.g., WS3). Backup files were automatically saved as BAKs.
• WordStar for Windows files use the extension WSD
• WordStar for Windows templates use the extension WST
• WordStar for Windows macros use the extension WMC
• WordStar for Windows temporary files use the extension !WS
• WordStar 2000 for DOS and UNIX PC don't have a fixed extension but DOC was common

Note:

• There isn't a WordStar for Windows 2000!
• WordStar for Windows was also released under the name WordStar Personal Writer, and is a development of WordStar Legacy itself developed from a program called Legacy. Xoom also released a version of WordStar for Windows 2.0 called Xoom Word Pro.

Information provided by the WordStar Resource Site

See also

• List of word processors
• Comparison of word processors

External links

• WordStar Support Site – featuring a full (as far as is known) history of WordStar