=================================================================

           A MORE LIVABLE WORDSTAR 7.0 SCREEN DISPLAY

               Copyright 1993 by Robert J. Sawyer

                       sawyer@sfwriter.com

=================================================================


I dislike a lot of the WordStar 7.0 screen display, but here are 
a few patches that make it more livable, at least to my eyes.


SCROLL BAR
==========

WordStar 7.0 adds an optional new scroll bar at the right side of 
the edit screen.  Even though I don't use a mouse, I like to know 
where I am within my file, so I often have the scroll bar turned 
on.  But I find the default display overwhelming, drawing my eye 
needlessly to that side of the screen.  

Browsing through PATCH.LST, I found that the characters making up 
the scroll bar are patchable, even though there's no WSCHANGE 
menu to access them.  

After a bit of experimentation, I found I liked this a lot better 
than WordStar's default.  It gives a scroll bar that consists of 
nothing more than a little box (no arrows at the top and bottom, 
and no inverse video for the unoccupied parts of the scroll bar).  
Clip these two lines to a file and patch them into WordStar from 
WSCHANGE menu E,A:

UDATE=0C,1F,5B
SBDISP=DB,FE,DB,DB,00,00

If that doesn't work (if you still get an inverse-video elevator 
shaft), try this instead:

UDATE=0C,1F,5B
SBDISP=20,FE,20,20,00,00


STYLE BAR
=========

Although the new style bar contains some useful information, I 
find it irritating that it's ALWAYS got some highlighted buttons 
on it.  I feel it should instead only highlight buttons when 
something is out of the ordinary.  So I've come up with this 
replacement style bar.

It replaces the <*> button (for code display) with superscript 
and subscript indicators.  Since I have display of the flag 
column tied to display of command tags (at WSCHANGE menu 
D,B,A,C), I don't need the <*> button to tell me whether tags are 
on or off.  This patch also gets rid of the "L" button for left-
justified text -- unless you're using the style bar as mouse hot-
points, there's no need for an inverse video button to signify 
the default condition.

UDATE=0C,1F,5B
STADEF2=02,0A,18,01,09,12,1A,11,03,2D,12,03,31,13,03,35
=14,03,39
=1A,10,3D
=15,03,3D
=0D,02,4D
=FF


FLAG COLUMN
===========

WordStar's flag column attempts to differentiate between regular 
dot commands and dot commands that should only be used at the top 
of the page.  But that distincition really isn't valid anymore; 
it's a holdover from WordStar 4.0.  Most dot commands can be used 
anywhere, even if WordStar's flag column says they can't.

I find it much easier on the eye to have all dot commands except 
merge-print commands flagged as "."  This patch replaces the "1" 
in the flag column with a "." and replaces the unintuitive ":" 
with the Greek letter "mu" for "merge-print" -- an idea I got 
from Sandy Garrett.  You'll find your flag column looks much 
cleaner.

UDATE=0C,1F,5B
SCMARK+0B=2E,E6

Some people also prefer to use an actual paragraph symbol (the
pilcrow), instead of a less-than sign to show the ends of 
paragraphs.  To get that, use this patch:

UDATE=0C,1F,5B
SCMARK=14


RE-INSTATING THE COMMAND-IN-PROGRESS INDICATOR AT HELP LEVEL 4
==============================================================

At help level 4, the current classic command in progress (such as 
^QC or ^KS) doesn't show up in the title bar the way it does at 
all other help levels.  I find this is enough to make HL4 
unusable.  John Nolan of WSI kindly provided this patch for 
WordStar 7.0 Rev. D to reinstate the command-in-progress 
indicator, and Rich Zuris kindly passed it on to me.

To enable "command-in-progress indicator" at help-level 4, use a 
hex debugger (such as the one included with the Norton Utilities 
or PC Tools) to change the following bytes in WS.EXE:

      ==============================
      Hex          Old       Change
      Offset      Value        To
      ==============================
      34C2D        74          90
      34C2E        63          90

If you want to find the patch point in other versions of WordStar 
7.0, try searching for this hex string:

              3C 04 74 63 B0 20


MISCELLANEOUS SCREEN CHARACTERS
===============================

Finally, if you have a hex debugger, such as the one that comes 
with PC Tools or The Norton Utilities, you might want to patch 
the following characters.

NOTE:  These changes are made to the file WSMSGS.OVR, not to 
WS.EXE!


================================================================
Hex     Item                                  Suggested Value
Offset                                       for oldtime users
================================================================
                                       ASCII  HEX
================================================================
C54B    Style bar:   B <bold>              B  42
C54C    Style bar:   I <italics>           Y  5A  (as in ^Y)  
C54D    Style bar:   U <underscore>        S  53  (as in ^S)  
C54E    Style bar:   <superscript>            18  (up arrow)
C54F    Style bar:   <subscript>              19  (down arrow)

C58C    Ruler line:  left margin           L  4C
C58D    Ruler line:  right margin          R  52
C58E    Ruler line:  paragraph margin      P  50
C58F    Ruler line:  empty column          -  2D  (hyphen)
C590    Ruler line:  regular tab           !  21
C591    Ruler line:  decimal tab           #  23
C592    Ruler line:  temporary indent      V  56
C593    Status line:  "P" <page>           P  50
C594    Status line:  "L" <line>           L  4C
C595    Status line:  "C" <column>         C  43
C596    Status line:  "V" <vertical>          19 (down arrow)
C597    Status line:  "H" <horizontal>        1A (left arrow)

Hope this is of some help!

Robert J. Sawyer
