05-13-2010, 06:14 AM | #1 |
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How about Wordstar?
So I have these old documents I'm trying to retrieve from the ancient Word Processor known as Wordstar. Nothing opens them up nicely, though I have been using wordpad and just fixing, fixing fixing.
It's not the end of the world if I have to do it this way. But does anyone have a better solution? |
05-13-2010, 06:40 AM | #2 |
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I do remember Wordstar... but I haven't anything that old outside floppies (which I can't read anymore). Have you tried OpenOffice?
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05-13-2010, 06:43 AM | #3 |
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Word certainly used to be able to import WordStar files; I don't know if it still does.
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05-13-2010, 07:01 AM | #4 |
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Further to the above:
Apparently, versions of Office prior to Office 2003 were supplied with an optional import filter for Wordstar, and this can still be downloaded. More details here: http://www.wordstar.org/wordstar/pag...ert_faq.htm#Q3 |
05-13-2010, 07:11 AM | #5 |
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Captcrouton,
I like the way you refer to it as "an ancient Word Processor known as Wordstar". Time was when "word processor" and "WordStar" were virtually synonyms. The mighty have indeed fallen. But, back to your question ... I was going to point out that WordStar files contain all the text of your document, interspersed with control characters. Any half-way decent programmer should be able to write a simple program to strip out the control characters, leaving just the text (but minus any formatting, such as bold and underscores). But Harry T has given you a much better solution. |
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05-13-2010, 09:43 PM | #6 | |
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Quote:
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05-13-2010, 09:46 PM | #7 |
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I've often wondered what happened to Word Perfect. when I worked in my Dad's law office, everything was done on that. on those big old floppies!
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05-13-2010, 10:48 PM | #8 |
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Do you mean the big old 8" floppies - those were floppy - or the dinky little 5.25" floppies? Certainly not the 3.5" stiffies!
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05-13-2010, 11:48 PM | #9 | |
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How times have changed, MS just released Office 2010! |
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05-14-2010, 12:50 AM | #10 | ||
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05-14-2010, 02:46 AM | #11 | |
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I had WordPerfect on my very first computer, which I bought in 1991.. I haven't even bothered to check out macros in Word... |
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05-14-2010, 03:28 AM | #12 |
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Thanks all. Harry, I checked your link. It worked like a charm. You've saved me hours.
Indeed, these files were on 3.5 floppies. I was amazed that I actually found the documents. I had to borrow a computer to look at them. Makes me wonder what else I have in that shoe box of floppies. |
05-14-2010, 03:40 AM | #13 | |
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As great as Wordstar 4 was, for me Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS is the best word processor I've ever used. There was little that I couldn't do with it, and once I got the hang of the keyboard commands it was very easy to use, and much easier to use than working with a mouse. To this day, I still tend to use keyboard commands rather than the mouse whenever possible. |
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05-14-2010, 03:42 AM | #14 |
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Yep... I had 5.1
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05-14-2010, 04:35 AM | #15 | |
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Quote:
I seem to remember discs as large as 15 inch? - for data storage and backup program .... can't bring to mind the device, though - used mainly as a comms box.... |
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