My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

WordStar was first introduced in 1978 and the final release--WordStar for
DOS 7.0 Rev. D--came out in December 1992. The program has never been
updated since, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades;
the program is abandonware.

But I still use it, and George R.R. Martin uses an earlier version. There
has never--until now--been a complete online archive of the final version
of the program along with all its manuals. Here it is:

Click to download the complete WordStar 7.0 archive

<https://sfwriter.com/sawyer-wordstar-7-archive.zip>

I spent weeks putting all this together. The archive contains not just the WordStar program but also extensive resources on how to use it, in addition
to fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, scanned from my own copies.

Since MS-DOS programs, such as WordStar, can't run under modern operating systems without using an MS-DOS emulator, I've provided two complete plug-and-play packages for running WordStar under Windows, one using
DOSBox-X, an emulator that's still actively developed and maintained, and another using vDosPlus, which still works wonderfully but is no longer maintained.

...

From: <https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm>
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On 01 Aug 2024, Ben Collver said the following...

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

Thank you for posting this.

Wordstar (and to a lesser extent WordPerfect) were important in my early writings.

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

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Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Ben Collver to All on Thu Aug 01 2024 02:33 pm

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

WordStar was first introduced in 1978 and the final release--WordStar for DO 7.0 Rev. D--came out in December 1992. The program has never been updated since, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the progra is abandonware.

Nice - I use DOS/Windows console text editors like VDE, Qedit and TSE - at the heart of them is the same Ctrl-K command set that Wordstar used.

There's a lot to be said for undistracted writing - open up a full screen DOS window and Just Start Typing. You've got no Wikipedia rabbit holes to go down, no web to browse when you're stuck for an idea, and no email to distract.

I keep an old Thinkpad X60 for just such opportunities.
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Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Ben Collver on Thu Aug 01 2024 01:11 pm

There's a lot to be said for undistracted writing - open up a full screen DOS window and Just Start Typing. You've got no Wikipedia rabbit holes to go down, no web to browse when you're stuck for an idea, and no email to distract.

I use Wordgrinder because it is a simple console word processor without clutter going on, but more often than not I have to keep other resources opened when writing.

It is hard to write documentation without having related reference manuals to check every now and then, for example.


--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
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My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

WordStar was first introduced in 1978 and the final release--WordStar for DOS 7.0 Rev. D--came out in December 1992. The program has never been updated since, and the company that made it has been defunct for decades; the program is abandonware.

But I still use it, and George R.R. Martin uses an earlier version. There has never--until now--been a complete online archive of the final version of the program along with all its manuals. Here it is:

Click to download the complete WordStar 7.0 archive

<https://sfwriter.com/sawyer-wordstar-7-archive.zip>

I spent weeks putting all this together. The archive contains not just the WordStar program but also extensive resources on how to use it, in additio to fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, scanned from my own copies.

Since MS-DOS programs, such as WordStar, can't run under modern operating systems without using an MS-DOS emulator, I've provided two complete plug-and-play packages for running WordStar under Windows, one using DOSBox-X, an emulator that's still actively developed and maintained, and another using vDosPlus, which still works wonderfully but is no longer maintained.

I regret that, having been but an egg cell when WordStar ceased development, I've never given it a try, but I can still respect the allure of distraction-free and command-line word processors; when my family first moved to Florida, my mom took up a job doing medical transcription, which initially involved WordPerfect 5.0 and (the part I don't miss) a dot-matrix printer.

I appreciate the effort that you've put into making just-add-water packages for WordStar, and will give it a try sometime in the near future... ADHD permitting. :D Doubly so because I tend to fall down umpteen rabbit holes while researching things for my worldbuilding.

-̹�lian

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Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Ben Collver to All on Thu Aug 01 2024 14:33:42

Hi, Robert.

I spent weeks putting all this together. The archive contains not just the WordStar program but also extensive resources on how to use it, in addition to fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, scanned from my own copies.

Thanks for your dedication - it's a couple of dozen people like you that really make the difference in this hobby.

I've never tried Wordstar, my earliest word processor was WordPerfect (5.1?), but thanks to your efforts I will give it a go.

Cheers,

BobW
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Ben Collver wrote to All <=-

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning
Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were
written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has
ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

Been playing around with home brew and terminal this week...
Have thought about a 'dos ish' word processor to help with
my writing - especially for my blog.

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!



... Ya know, some days life is just one non sequitur after catfish.
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Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver on Sat May 03 2025 23:35:00

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well. I didn't care for WP. I guess I got spoiled with the on-screen cheat-sheet.
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Quoting Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver <=-

Ben Collver wrote to All <=-

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning
Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were
written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has
ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

Been playing around with home brew and terminal this week...
Have thought about a 'dos ish' word processor to help with
my writing - especially for my blog.

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!

Still using WordStar on my new PC and my 386. Got WS 5.5 in 88 and then
moved up to 6 and then 7.0d in 91. It's a great word processor but
might take a day to get up to speed with it. I also have WP6 but I
started out with WS and it still works great for me.

WS 7 is nice as you can use the Windows clipboard to copy and paste
back and forth.

JM2C...

... If I only had one more teragigadactylbyte...

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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Mortar M. wrote to Ben Collver <=-

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well.

I never used Wordstar, except for a short stint under CP/M.

When I started BBSing, I was taking computer science classes at the
time, and looked at a lot of text editors. Qedit was nice, fast, and
worked for text editing and code nicely. It came with a couple of key
bindings, but defaulted to Wordstar.

VDE was a more word-processor-like editor with on-screen help like
Wordstar and the same command set.

Between those two, the key bindings are burned into my mind. Fast
forward to present day, and I'm entering this message in TSE, a Windows
32-bit console text editor from the makers of Qedit. Same bindings,
plus a menu bar at the top.


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Quoting Mortar M. to Ben Collver <=-

Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver on Sat May 03 2025 23:35:00

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well. I didn't
care for WP. I guess I got spoiled with the on-screen cheat-sheet. -!-

Once you learned the commands, you could turn that thing off and only
have the submenus pop up with the Ctrl keys. Or if you were really
good, turn off the menus altogether.

Started with 5.5, 6 and still use 7.0d.

RJS - Great writer!

... Go straight to the docs. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200!

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Cougar428 wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!

Still using WordStar on my new PC and my 386. Got WS 5.5 in 88 and
then
moved up to 6 and then 7.0d in 91. It's a great word processor but
might take a day to get up to speed with it. I also have WP6 but I
started out with WS and it still works great for me.

WS 7 is nice as you can use the Windows clipboard to copy and paste
back and forth.

I'm enjoying the old style - but easy on the eyes. :-)



... Enter any 12 digit prime number to continue
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