Hi,
I've been using WS since the beginning (WS 3.1?). Actually, I started using WS on my old Kaypro II back in 1983! Now, we have WS 7.0 LAN (we also have several copies of WS for Windows but its still in the box -- we haven't "progressed" that far.
Anyway, the 21st Century is starting to intrude. We are a small law firm in NJ. The Courts have now advised that in October, all filing must be electronic, and in Adobe Acrobat format.
So, we need to convert our files from WS format to Adobe.
Q.: Does anyone know whether Adobe Acrobat has a conversion filter to convert native WS files into Adobe files, or must we first convert to MS Word, then to Adobe. If so, I think it may be time to give up on WS, or, perhaps, try out WS WIN.
Does WS WIN convert over?
What is the process and where do I start?
Thanks for you help.
Alan
Tuesday 06 May 2003
Go to my Web Space
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/WordStar.html
and download the printer driver I have customized for PDF creation. Instructions for its use are on the site.
I regularly create Acrobat PDF files. For a sample see
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/CDNROOTS.pdf
Phil
Wednesday 07 May 2003
That should be
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/CDNROOTS.PDF
Phil
Dear Phil,
Thanks for the help. I unzipped your file and copied 4039pga.pdf into my WS directory. I changed the redirection folder as you suggested. I then attempted to print a sample file, and received the following error message: "Can't print. Prologue file not found."
Sorry, a little too archane for me. Is there another file I need to copy into the ws directory, or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks.
Alan
I moved everything from the zip file into my WS directory and tried to distill my sample file. I got the following error:
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Distill Time: 0 seconds (00:00:00)
**** End of Job ****
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Alan
Hi Allan!
Right now my best guess would be that the prologue file is corrupt, I will download and test.
I have improved the package but have yet to upload the corrections.
Phil
May 9, 2003
I am working on this and have an update ready, but this is a day when my ISP is refusing me access.
In the interim if you can send me (pgaga@auracom.com) a test file, with just a couple of words, I will look at it. How Distiller works was changed and I once tracked a problem to Postlogue information.
Another test would be to create a file with Roger Allen's driver which is in the ZIP.
Phil
May 9 2003
I tried again right after posting the last message. The new PSDRVPGA.ZIP is now on my site.
This driver has improved PDFmark comments and the ability to set PageSize.
Phil
Thanks Phil. Can you tell me where it is located? I went to the Wordstar page at http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/WordStar.html and clicked on "printer support", then clicked on http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/PSDRVPGA.ZIP. The downloaded zip file is the same as the previous file which I tried with no success. I did read that you uploaded a revised file to your web page, but I just can't find it.
Thanks again.
??? ??? ???
javascript:huh()
Huh
In the meantime, I tried using another sample WS7 file, printed to the 4039pga driver, and got the following error messages in Adobe 5.0 Distiller:
Start Time: Friday, May 09, 2003 at 9:40 AM
Destination: F:\APPS\WS\temp\WS_PDF.pdf
Source: WS_PDF.PS
%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
Distill Time: 1 seconds (00:00:01)
**** End of Job ****
The file is a longer file than the one I tried yesterday. Obviously, something is "amiss".
Thanks.
Trying to isolate the problem. I opened up a plain ASCII file, and saved it to disk. Then I tried to use Adobe Distiller and got similar error messages. Here is the file I sent using my ASCII printer:
THIS IS AN ASCII FILE
THIS HAS NO FORMATTING
THIS SHOULD PRESENT NO PROBLEM
RIGHT!
This is the resulting error log:
%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: THIS ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
So, it looks like the first word or character creates an error. This appears consistent with my prior error messages. The question is -- why and how doe I fix it?
Thank you
Alan
Alan
I've just stumbled across this old thread (I stopped lurking the older WordStar lists some time ago) ... did you ever solve the WS-to-PDF conversion problem?
I ask since I'm similarly situated (solo office with WS7 using Win98SE machines over Netware 5.0 to HP laserjets and a WS history going back to 1981). I've gotten by so far by using WS7 to create FAX (actually, .pcx) files then opening the first page (it makes a separate file for each page) in Acrobat as a .pdf file, add the rest of the pages, and save the single .pdf file. It looks fine on-screen, but the printed product pixelates enough to be distracting.
WS is set to create those .pcx files in a dedicated directory (I refuse to call them folders) and a macro periodically clears the accumulated contents of that directory.
But there must be a better way, at least until my inevitable conversion to Word (or OpenOffice). So, how'd you do?
Keith
Yes, I've been working with it successfully for at least 6 months now without a hitch. You need to download the Postscript driver and, of course, edit it as you wish to be used with your printer. Then, when you want to do the conversion, at the print menu, instead of sending the output to the printer, send it to the postscript "printer" (renamed it Adobe). You will then have a file with a "ps" extension, i.e., filename.ps.
Once you have the *.ps file, use Adobe distiller to convert it to a PDF file.
It sounds complicated, but its really simple.
If you like, send me your email address and I'll send you the drivers we're using here (for our HPIIID and HPIII printers). You should be able to modify them.
ostrow.law@verizon.net
Good luck.
Alan ;D
I have received quite a few inquiries from users requesting help using Wordstar files under Adobe so I'm reproducing my latest email with a copy of my Adobe PDF driver. It was an accumulation of work of others, not my own work, I'm not taking any credit for it, just passing it along. Good luck.
> Yes, I've been working with it successfully for at least 6 months now without a hitch. You need to download the Postscript driver and, of course, edit it as you wish to be used with your printer. Then, when you want to do the conversion, at the print menu, instead of sending the output to the printer, send it to the postscript "printer" (renamed it Adobe). You will then have a file with a "ps" extension, i.e., filename.ps.
>
> Once you have the *.ps file, use Adobe distiller to convert it to a PDF file.
>
> It sounds complicated, but its really simple.
>
> If you like, send me your email address and I'll send you the drivers we're using here (for our HPIIID and HPIII printers). You should be able to modify them.
>
> ostrow.law@verizon.net
>
> Good luck.
> Alan
OK, here are the drivers we use for the HPIII and HPIIID printers. One of them should work fine with your HP4. If not, you'll need to get into the WS page for help on that. I already did the conversion, so there's really nothing to be done. Just copy these files into your WS directory. At print time, in the printer dialog box, select ADOBE as your printer. This will allow you to print to a "PS" file, or Postscript file. There is a default filename listed there, i.e., "Redirect to a:filename.ps" You can name the file anything you'd like, such as z:whatsits.ps or whatever, and store it wherever you like. I used the default as "a:", because I store all my "ps" files on my floppy disk drive.
After the file has "printed" to a PS file, open up Adobe, click on Tools, Distiller, and point it to your a:filename.ps file or whatever you called it, and it will distill your postscript file into a PDF file. You will be asked by Adobe where you wish to store your new file, and what you wish to name it. Find a place on your hard disk or server where you will habitually store your PDFs, and find a place on your computer to store your PS files.
That's it.
Good Luck.
Alan
I confess to being somewhat mystified as to why people don't make more use of the postscript features WordStar comes with.
WordStar comes with generic postscript printers. These produce postscript files which can be distilled into pdf files by any distilling program. That means you can use the free programs like ghostscript and 995pdf on the Windows platform (and even more free or inexpensive possibilities if you're using Linux).
In addition, WordStar's file printing ability allows for taking postscript files made by any software (it doesn't have to be WordStar) and combining them into a single document.
You can install any postscript printer you desire from prchange. It should be one that has the fonts you want to use, but you do not need the physical printer at all. And, you can use that printer driver for printing to postscript from WordStar. The Apple laserwriter, a postscript printer commonly used for this purpose, is included with WordStar.
If you're on the Windows platform, you do have to go to the extra effort of getting a distiller for postscript in order to produce the pdf files. You don't have to pay for Adobe Acrobat if you only use it for distilling. If you need to make interactive forms and are on the Windows platform, I believe Adobe Acrobat is your only choice. There are lots of free or inexpensive distillers out there -- and they do an excellent job.
And, BTW, this is not just true for release 7 of WordStar -- the postscript printers and the Apple laserwriter printer driver have been included for a long time.
???
Thank you so much for this help, especially Deedee.
I have now got the Generic Postscript PDF working and found a free distiller on the internet.
The only problem is with Extended Characters -- I use several of them and they are not being read, so I am looking for help with that.
Mr. Ostrolaw also was helpful and sent me a file named Adobe.pdf which he says has been massaged for this process. Possibly it would be better but I can't get it to work. I put it in the WS directory and it immediately showed up as a printer option. But when I try to use it, it says "can't print - pdf or driver files not found"
Thanks -- :-/
Monday, February 21, 2005
All the PS printers drivers which came with WS7 are deliberately deficient. As far as I can tell, it had to do with memory limits for the distillation process--the driver which I am about to reference will not work on my 16 meg Win3.1 laptop.
To get full use of extended characters you need my customized version of Roger Allen's PS driver. Roger added curly quotes. I have added support the Euro, colour support, and support for extended characters. The driver is found at:
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/PSDRVPGA.ZIP
My personal version of this driver (I have added additional Type 1 fonts) is my default printer driver. I use GS to print using the system printer on all my systems (OS/2, Win3.1, Win98SE, WinME). On my WinME and Win98SE systems, I have a duplicate of my default printer driver called FreeDist.pdf. It has been modified to send the printer output to the folder watched by FreedDist (a free front end to Ghostscript), using the file name. A PDF with the file name is then automatically created.
Phil
I tried the material offered by Phil - what I did, I put the files 4039pga.pdf and wsprolga.ps into my WS directory. Sure enough I had a new printer and it worked.
But, when I ran my PS file through a distiller, the extended characters still didn't appear.
Where before I got question marks, this time I got blank space. (The ones I use are a solid rectangle, a dash-type line, and a bullet-type triangle)
Thanks for any help - I'll keep trying.
Doug
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Send me a copy of the file (or another file with the characters in them) and I will see if I can add them to the driver.
Phil
grifwood@glinx.com
Note for PGAGA
You may need to look at the WinAPI OEMtoChar function
Thursday 24 February 2005
Well, the good news is that the characters are accessed by my driver with the Courier font. The bad news is that you need to have a version of the Courier font with the extended characters installed.
For some reason most PS fonts do not come with desired characters as part of their font set. I could not get them recognized on my Win98SE system in Halifax. But coming home to Kentville last night, the characters were there on my Warp system. OS/2 ships with font versions containing the characters.
I suspect that there may be a modification to the Prologue file which would generate the characters for other fonts, and I will post an inquiry to the Postscript news group about how to do it.
Phil
QuoteThank you so much for this help, especially Deedee.
I have now got the Generic Postscript PDF working and found a free distiller on the internet.
The only problem is with Extended Characters -- I use several of them and they are not being read, so I am looking for help with that.
I waited to respond because I wanted to see which extended characters you needed and if Phil's driver took care of the problem for you. I knew that Phil's driver has included typographical characters, but I don't use them with WS particularly, so the generic PS drivers work well for me.
My initial thought on this was to ask you how do you get them to print from your printer. If your printer is both PCL and PS in nature, you may be able to get your characters by using its PS driver. To do this, just install its PS version from the printer database. For example, I use an HP Laserjet 5MP. I have it installed as a PCL printer (and I use this one to physically print to), but I also have it installed as a PS driver so that I can access the fonts it comes with (which happens to include the extended characters I need). I use the PS version when I create a file for distilling. Did you try installing the Apple Laserwriter to see if it has the extended characters you want?
Well, glad to hear that you at least go the thing going with generic print capabilities :) . The Adobe driver I sent to you is probably the same one you are using now, but I adapted it to the HPIII printer. It obviously didn't like the HP4.
As far as advanced printing fonts, etc., I can't help you, because I just use basic text fonts which work fine for me.
Sorry and good luck
Alan
Thursday 24 February 2005
This has been an interesting exercise. First, I discovered that the ability to display the characters in a PDF is only available in my personal custom built file. The one downloaded from my Web site will not work. I have created a new one and will upload in a day or so. What I did to create it, I have no idea.
Second, I have yet get the file to distill under Windows. It only works under OS/2 even with the OS/2 fonts on the Windows system. I am beginning to suspect this is a DOS code page issue.
More playing to be done.
Phil
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Success! I now have a version of my driver which correctly puts the extended characters into the PS file. I had to hex edit a driver to get it to work. Likely next week I will post an update to my driver.
Even better, using the OS/2 font files I was able to get PDF creation on Windows using Ghostscript 7.06. All I did was copy the OS/2 fonts files into the GS\Fonts folder.
The glitch in all this is that the fonts come with Warp (or at least the free fixpack for Warp). But there should be lots of cheap copies of Warp around for those needing these fonts.
Later I will develop a detailed how to for getting this work transparentingly. In the case of Windows I use FreeDist.exe to monitor a folder to which I send the PS file for distilling and automatic PDF creation.
Phil
I have mostly accomplished what I needed, at least for the time being, and wish to thank those generous persons who have helped me. The main point was learning that there are printers that will do a good job of converting a Wordstar document to a .PS file, when then goes through a distiller to become a PDF.
I have still not found a way to convert the extended characters -- I use several of them including bullets and a couple others in creating a sort of graphic design look for my reports. Deedee is oriented toward simple, practical suggestions which I really appreciate - on this topic, however, I have now tried the HP4 PS and the Apple laserwriter PS printer files, and they did not convert the extended characters. Phil is way into this and other problems and has some solutions but it appears they are on another platform, and he is fiddling to make them useful more widely, and I am looking forard to see what he comes up with.
I do commercial real estate appraisal reports and I had to get this one off, so I found ways to just take out the extended characters and replace them in a way that looks similar. It would be nice to find a better solution, as I expect to find more and more mortgage lenders and other clients wanting to receive a digital copy of the appraisal report.
Thanks again -- I'll keep watching this space !!
Doug Kingsbury opalo28@yahoo.com
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The good news is that I now seemlessly can process Doug's files on my Win98SE and WinME systems from WS to PDF. The problem is that I use commercial fonts from Warp to so do.
Phil
Thursday 03 March 2005
I have uploaded an updated versions of my version of Roger Allen's PS printer driver.
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/PSDRVPGA.ZIP
Graphical characters are enabled in this version. But, these characters are not included by default in Type 1 fonts. In fact the only one's which I know contain them come with OS/2.
Phil
Thursday 31 March 2005
Following a discussion on the Postscript Newsgroup I have updated my PS driver.
http://www.glinx.com/~grifwood/PSDRVPGA.ZIP
The good news is that there is a free IBM Courier font which enables embedding of the extended characters in PDFs.
Phil