Pasting from Clipboard in Windows XP

[ostrowlaw]

My last post on this subject was wiped out so I'll try to recreate it.  I'm not in the office, but I have some notes here.

The problem seems to be that WS7.0 won't allow the use of the windows clipboard.  But, there is a work around and it does work.  Here goes, give it a try:

1.  Open WS DOS in WinXP (i.e., set up an icon on the desktop pointing to where your installation is, and have it open your version of WS.exe

2.  After the program is open, minimize it, and at the bottom of the Windows Desktop screen, right click on the icon for WS DOS

3.  Click on Properties

4.  Under Options, Edit Options, make sure that Quick Edit Mode is checked.

5.  Close window.

5.  Now, while WS is in Windows mode (it must run in Windows mode, won't work in full screen mode) drag and highlight the text you wish to put into the windows clipboard.  

6.  Then, go into your other windows program, put the cursor where you wish to insert the text and just right click will insert the text.

Viola!

Enjoy.
 

[RJSawyer]

Here are the WordStar macros, and the two supporting files -- EXIT.TXT and FROMCLIP.BAT -- I use to write any size block of material to and from the Windows XP clipboard under WordStar for DOS 7.0.

These require the use of 4NT, a commercial COMMAND.COM replacement from http://www.jpsoft.com/

Note the pathing in the macros for the called files; you must edit the macros to match your pathing.

There's some voodoo in the macros, such as calling and escaping from WordStar's Print dialog box in order to free memory:  Key("^KP{Esc}")

Note that one line of macro code below has wrapped to two lines in this message; see the "REM !!!!" comment, and fix it manually.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Rob

===

TOCLIP.WSM:

REM WordStar 7.0 macro by Robert J. Sawyer
REM Created Friday, October 4, 2002
REM updated Saturday, February 14, 2004
REM
REM Without using WordStar's actual ^K]
REM command, this macro copies the existing
REM marked block from WordStar to the Windows
REM clipboard by first writing the block to
REM temporary file C:\CLIPTEMP.TXT, and then
REM copying that to the 4NT pseudo-device CLIP:
REM
Sub Main
    AutoRestore(ON)
    Key("^KW")
    Key("C:\CLIP\CLIPTEMP.TXT{Alt+A}")
    Key("+")
    Key("^K")
       IfException
       ACK: Key("O")
       End IfException
    Key("^KF")
REM !!!! Should not be split over two lines
       Key("c:\4nt\4nt.exe copy C:\clip\cliptemp /a
clip: /b < C:\clip\exit.txt^K")
End Sub

===

FROMCLIP.WSM:

REM WordStar 7.0 macro by Robert J. Sawyer
REM Created Sunday, February 15, 2004
REM
REM Without using WordStar's actual ^K[
REM command, this macro copies the existing
REM marked block from the Windows clipboard
REM to WordStar by writing the clipboard's
REM contents to temporary file C:\CLIPTEMP.TXT,
REM and then reading in that file
REM
Sub Main
    AutoRestore(ON)
    Key("^KP{Esc}")
    Key("^KF")
    Key("C:\BAT\FROMCLIP.BAT^K")
    Key("^KR")
    Key("C:\CLIP\FROMCLIP.TXT")
    Key("^K")
End Sub

===

FROMCLIP.BAT

REM Monday, October 18, 2004, by Robert J. Sawyer
REM Called by WordStar macro FROMCLIP
del C:\F\CLIP\FROMCLIP.TXT
4nt /c copy clip: C:\F\CLIP\FROMCLIP.TXT

===

EXIT.TXT:

exit (just that one word with a hard carriage return
at the end of the line)

===


=====

 ROBERT J. SAWYER, Science Fiction Writer

 Best Novel HUGO AWARD winner for HOMINIDS
 Best Novel NEBULA AWARD winner for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT

 http://www.sfwriter.com    *    sawyer at sfwriter.com

[wordstar]

Sounds a great idea. However in my copies of  2000 and XP there is no "options" window. What Win are you using?
Errol

[Forum Admin]

Once you've started WordStar in a DOS shell window (if you start it full-screen type ALT+ENTER to get it into a window), click on the icon at the left-hand end of the window's title bar to open the "Control Menu, then select Properties. You should get a dialog box with fout tabs (Windows XP): Options; Font; Layout; Colors. You need the first tab - Options.

If you do set the Quick Edit option to ON you won't be able to use the mouse to select the WordStar menus! So if you want that functionality, you can't use the quick edit selection function and will have to resort to selecting the "Control Menu > Edit > Mark/Copy/Paste method of copying text.