
In folder C:\WS, you'll find these versions of WordStar:

WS.EXE:        a mostly default installation but with minor 
               customizations made by Robert J. Sawyer, the 
               person who compiled this WordStar archive.  This 
               is the version you should try first.  The help 
               level is set to 4, meaning you'll have access to 
               full CUA-compliant Windows-style pulldown menus, 
               in addition to the classic WordStar control-key 
               interface.  The screen colors are set to what 
               WordStar's publisher called "Color - alternate 
               palette #2 (underlining monitors)," slightly 
               modified by Rob so that bold, italic, bold-italic, 
               underlining, and strikeout all show properly under 
               DOSBox-X.  The other customizations Rob has made 
               are listed at the end of this file.  WS4.EXE is 
               identical to WS.EXE.

WS2.EXE:       identical to WS.EXE, except the default help level 
               is set to 2, so that there are no pulldown menus 
               and WordStar menus are only displayed if you press 
               one of the WordStar menu prefixes (^K, ^Q, ^O, ^P, 
               or ^M) and then hesitate.  If you've used a 
               version of WordStar prior to WordStar 7, this will 
               seem quite familiar to you.

WS3.EXE:       identical to WS.EXE, except the default help level 
               is set to 3 (so that classic menus using 
               WordStar's native command interface are always 
               displayed -- useful when first learning WordStar).

WSRJS.EXE:     These versions are identical to the above, except 
WS4RJS.EXE:    that they use a custom color scheme created by Rob 
WS3RJS.EXE:    that is less harsh on the eyes than the default 
WS2RJS.EXE:    WordStar one.

PRISTINE.EXE:  an almost completely unmodified version of 
               WordStar 7.0, which, frankly, has neither the look 
               nor the feel of classic WordStar.  (Rob has set it 
               to use Advance Page Preview files in the folder 
               C:\WS\DEFAULT\APP, though, so they won't get mixed 
               in with the superior ones he's created that are 
               used by the other versions provided here.)

SAWYER.EXE:    WordStar 7.0 at help level 2 with a screen display 
               and default settings extensively customized by 
               Robert J. Sawyer.  It's designed to be both easy 
               on the eyes and have a screen mostly free of 
               clutter; see the file SAWYER.WS for a discussion 
               of some of the changes to the screen display.  (In 
               any of the versions of WordStar provided here, you 
               can turn on or off screen elements on the fly with 
               the ^OB command or permanently change them at 
               WSCHANGE menu D,B,A.)

RJSMACRO.EXE:  A version of SAWYER.EXE that uses the WordStar 
               macros in C:\WS\MACROS\SAWYER instead of the 
               default folder C:\WS\MACROS, provided so that you 
               can look at the macro code Rob has written (via 
               the ^MD macro edit/create command), in case it's 
               of any use if you decide to write your own.  (If 
               you want to learn more about WordStar macros, see 
               the discussion beginning on page 12-21 of the 
               manual Reference (WordStar 7).pdf in 
               C:\WS\MANUALS.)

have 
               a look at the files in C:\WS\MACROS\HOLYMAC.)

WSVDOS.EXE:    Use this version if you're running WordStar under 
               vDosPlus instead of DOSBox-X.

Once you've decided which version you like best (and have 
customized it to your heart's content), simply copy that versions 
executable (for instance, WS2.EXE) to WS.EXE, overwriting the 
existing version.  That version will then load each time you 
start a new DOSBox-X session.  

Alternatively, you can change the name of the WordStar executable 
DOSBox-X calls; that's done at the very end of the massive 
DOSBox-X configuration file, C:\WS\DOSBOX-X\dosbox-X.conf.  You 
can also remove this line, which provides the help message about 
WordStar versions after you terminate WordStar for the first time 
in a DOSBox-X session:

                    @TYPE C:\WS\FIRSTRUN.TXT

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

 THE MINIMAL CUSTOMIZATIONS TO WS.EXE MADE BY ROBERT J. SAWYER:

* Modifying WordStar's color scheme so that under DOSBox-X and 
  vDosPlus true italics and boldface can be shown.  This was done 
  at WSCHANGE menu A,B,A.

* Setting WordStar so that it will autosize its display to 
  whatever number of columns and rows your system happens to be 
  using; by default, WordStar is set to use an 80-column by 25-
  row screen, and if your system has a different screen size, 
  WordStar won't display properly.  This was done at WSCHANGE 
  menu A,A,C by setting both "Height" and "Width" to zero (a 
  trick that is not documented in WSCHANGE's <F1> help).

  [For DOSBox-X users, screen dimensions are set in the file 
  C:\WS\DOSBOX-X\dosbox-X.conf in the [ttf] section by the values 
  given for "lins" (number of lines) and "cols" (number of 
  columns); for vDosPlus users, you can adjust screen dimensions 
  by changing the values set for "LINS" and "COLS" in the file 
  C:\WS\VDOSPLUS\AUTOEXEC.TXT.]

* Setting the pathing so that printer files are in 
  C:\WS\PRINTERS, Advanced Page Preview files are in C:\WS\APP, 
  and WordStar macros are in C:\WS\MACROS, instead of all being 
  lumped together into C:\WS; splitting "Companion" programs 
  (TelMerge, MailList, and ProFinder) into separate folders, 
  instead of all being lumped together in C:\WS\OPTIONS; and 
  splitting the Inset graphics-integration program and the Hijaak 
  graphics-conversion overlay into separate folders C:\WS\INSET 
  and C:\WS\HIJAAK, instead Hijaak also being in C:\WS\INSET).  
  This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,D.

* Configuring the <Enter> key to move from field to field in 
  dialog boxes (instead of closing the box), which was how it 
  worked in all versions of WordStar prior to 7.  This was done 
  at WSCHANGE menu D,B,H,2,D.

* Turning on support for the <F11> and <F12> keys.  This was done 
  at WSCHANGE menu A,D,C.

* Changing the default paragraph style sheet name from "Body 
  Text" to "WordStar Defaults."  This was done at WSCHANGE menu 
  D,A,F,B.

* Changing the behavior of the ^QX command (which goes to the 
  bottom of the screen) from going to the far rightmost text on 
  the last line to the first column on the last line).  This was 
  done as WSCHANGE menu D,B,H,H.

* Turning on the prompt for choosing whether to edit a document 
  or a nondocument (plain ASCII text file) when opening a second 
  WordStar editing window with ^OK.  This was done at WSCHANGE 
  menu D,C,G,G.

* Eliminating the two-second delay to show the WordStar splash 
  screen each time the program is booted.  This was done at 
  WSCHANGE menu D,C,G,B.

* Turning off the "Can't find that file" prompt, which annoyingly 
  appears whenever you try to create a new file.  This was done 
  at WSCHANGE menu D,B,A,2,I.

* Turning off the automatic printing of page numbers at the 
  bottom of each page.  This was done at WSCHANGE menu B,C,2,A.

* Setting page margins appropriate to standard documents (one 
  inch on each side).  This was done at WSCHANGE menu D,B,A.

* Turning on definitions during spellcheck.  This was done at 
  WSCHANGE menu C,C,C.

* Changing the main spelling buffer from (-1), which lets the 
  speller eat up all available memory, to 100 kilobytes, to limit 
  the speller's memory usage to that amount.  This was done at 
  WSCHANGE menu C,C,D.

* Increasing the unerase buffer from the default 500 bytes to 
  8000 bytes.  This was done at WSCHANGE menu C,C,H.

* Changing the default find and find-and-replace options from 
  none to "UA," meaning "ignore case" and "align paragraph after 
  replace."  This was done at WSCHANGE menu D, B, G, A.

* Having the insert-mode cursor be a block and the overtype-mode 
  cursor be an underscore, instead of the opposite.  This was 
  done at WSCHANGE menu A,C,F.  I've further tweaked the default 
  cursor shapes by going to WSCHANGE menu E, typing =, and 
  changing the first six bytes from the values of 07 00 07 06 to 
  05 02 04 07 to deal with the bug described in "SPELLCHECKING A 
  FILE" in C:\WS\-README.WS.

* Changing the overlap when scrolling by screens with ^R or ^C 
  (or <PgUp> and <PgDn>) to be zero lines (no overlap).  This was 
  done by going to WSCHANGE menu E, typing =, then scnovr, and 
  changing the first byte from FF to 00.  Search on "scnovr" in 
  file PATCH.TXT for details.

* Making the command-in-progress indicator (such as ^QU when 
  reformatting a document) appear in the title bar even at help 
  level 4 (where it's normally suppressed).  This was done for 
  all versions, including PRISTINE.EXE, by using a hex-debugging 
  tool to change the following bytes in the main program file 
  (WS.EXE, PRISTINE.EXE, and so on):

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

* Also: Rob has installed higher-resolution on-screen fonts (that 
  he created) for Advanced Page Preview in C:\WS\APP, and he's 
  edited the preview control file FONTID.CTL in C:\WS\APP so that 
  these fonts will be used by all versions except PRISTINE.EXE.

  In FONTID.CTL, he also specified that the WordStar Graphics 
  Driver VESA1024.WGD should be used, which makes the preview 
  display come up at 1024x768 pixels instead of the default VGA 
  resolution of 640x480 pixels.  File C:\WS\APP\DEFAULT.CTL is a 
  backup of the original FONTID.CTL with the as-shipped default 
  settings.  (vDosPlus users will find preview files in 
  C:\WS\APP\VDOSPLUS; vDosPlus only supports VGA preview 
  resolution.)

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

       DEFAULT VERSION AND COMPLETELY FRESH INSTALLATIONS:

C:\WS\DEFAULT:  this folder contains an absolutely pristine 
                install of WordStar 7.0 for DOS with no 
                modifications whatsoever.  However, it will not 
                run from that folder; WS.EXE has internal pathing 
                to its supporting files, and this version has 
                them set to C:\WS and a suite of subfolders.  The 
                pathing assignments can be changed at WSCHANGE 
                menu C,D.

C:\WS\INSTALL:  this folder contains WSSETUP.COM and copies of 
                the original 3.5-inch floppy disc that WordStar 7 
                was distributed on.  Copy these files to the root 
                directory (WSSETUP.COM will not run from a 
                subfolder) of any drive and run WSSETUP to create 
                a completely fresh installation of WordStar.  Use 
                this serial number: 33787979.

-- Robert J. Sawyer
   sawyer@sfwriter.com
   August 2024
