Determining WordStar version

Started by jadney, January 06, 2014, 07:05:11 PM

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jadney

I have a number of files that I've recovered from my parent's computers that were all written in WordStar. With the help of this forum I think I've found how to convert them to Word, but it sounds like it would be helpful if I knew which version of WordStar they were written with. They were probably written under DOS and sometime between 1984 and 1994.

I can read the files with Windows Notepad. Is there any way to tell from this examination which version of WordStar this came from? Or is there a better way to examine them?

BTW, among my folks things, I found a complete, pristine WordStar 7.0 for DOS upgrade package. It contains all the manuals and twenty 5.25" floppy disks. Everything's is there and it appears to be untouched. I'll bet Dad never even installed it. I may have been the only person to have ever opened the box. I'm not interested in installing it, although that's a possibility. (The 5.25" floppys make that challenging, although I DO have the necessary drive, cable, and early PC)

Is this anything that one of you out there would want? (It's not clear to me that anyone visits this site anymore.)




Forum Admin

When trying the conversion I would start with selecting the latest versions first. If the results aren't very good, then try WS4.

By looking at the files WS5 and later may have a closing curly brace "}" near the start, which won't be there with WS4 and earlier. This isn't a scientific check, and may not apply in all cases - I'd need to dig out the file format documentation to remind myself of what should be there.

You are right that this site isn't visited as often these days. WordStar users are getting thinner on the ground as the years go by. Our main discussion now mainly goes through our associated Yahoo Group mailing list.

I hope this helps you.

Regards
Mike
Forum Administrator
WordStar Resource Site

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