Reading Wordstar 5.0 Files

Probably an old question (and not the right category) -- hows that for a down in the dumps start. I have a small boxcar of Wordstar 5.0 files that I'd like to read/fiddle with on our Macs. We are using OS 6.8 Help appreciated.

Talk about the extinction of the dinosaurs! ;P WordStar was the first WP I learned many years ago back in the Prehistoric days when those dinosaurs were still roaming the earth.

Do you have access to a PC? If you do, and the PC has a version of Windows Word or even the DOS version of Word, you can convert the WordStar files to Word format: *.doc.

Or if by chance you have access to the original WordStar program, just convert the files to *.rtf and they will be able to be read by TextEdit on your Mac. TextEdit can also read and open *.doc.

This may help as chscag suggests using a PC and Office. Don't know if Mac Office versions would work:-


How to Open Wordstar Docs With MS Word | eHow UK

Chscag & Harryb2448 .. thanks to both of you. Yes I have a PC (an old Dell 4600 Dimension full of bats and ghosts that come out at night and beat up on me--and an even older Everex laptop with cataracts..wish I knew how to help the old girl.) I also have the WS 5.0 disks. We're off for a week to southern Ill/be off the www grid. When I get back next week I'll let you know what gives. Harry my Mac Office/Word 2008 does a so-so conversion job..just maybe a bit too much clutter (character inserts/line extension characters, etc.) Thanks again for your consideration/help. ted

chscag said:

Talk about the extinction of the dinosaurs! ;P WordStar was the first WP I learned many years ago back in the Prehistoric days when those dinosaurs were still roaming the earth.

Do you have access to a PC? If you do, and the PC has a version of Windows Word or even the DOS version of Word, you can convert the WordStar files to Word format: *.doc.

Or if by chance you have access to the original WordStar program, just convert the files to *.rtf and they will be able to be read by TextEdit on your Mac. TextEdit can also read and open *.doc.

Click to expand...

When you say the "original WordStar program," do you mean the installation disks, or a DOS machine running WS? In any case, what is the procedure for converting WordStar files to *.rtf? Reading and editing old WS files in TextEdit on a MAC would be ideal for me. Would the original line breaks and so on be preserved? Thanks for any advice.

Many folks are pack rats (me) and keep old versions of their favorite programs around. I still have many old DOS programs like WordPerfect 5. Having access to the original WordStar program would be ideal. Of course you would need a PC or an Intel Mac with DOS box installed (DOS emulator) to run the program.

You can certainly try reading the WS document files on your Mac with TextEdit. I'm not sure if the original line breaks and attributes would be preserved. As for converting the WS files to RTF you would have to do a double conversion: First to MS Word (DOS version) and then to RTF. WordStar by itself did not have a RTF conversion filter.

Haven't done any programming in years, but Turbo Pascal used WordStar commands for the text editor.
Makes me wonder if the editors for Objective C or C++ (neither of which I have looked at recently) would do the same.