WorsStar Files (.WSD) Quest

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pop
  • Start date Start date
P

Pop

Hi,

Please forgive the cross-post; I think I need a wide audience to find the
experience I need.

I am trying to recover some very old *.WSD files created by the old word
processor WordStar. I'm not sure whether it was the older DOS version or
the later Windows version that was used to create them, but from the dates I
suspect a mix.

Does anyone know of a converter that would be capable of saving/changing
these to Windows XP format; any of the Office or up to date apps would be
fine as there are probably viewers it it's an app I don't have?
I'd prefer something that might be able to work in a batch mode, but even
having to open/close each file would still be acceptable - beggers can't be
choosers, right? <g>

I've tried the Office programs to no avail. Somewhere, I still have the
WordStar for windows floppies, but they're so old that I doubt they'll be
useful even if I do find them. They might even be CP/M hard-sectored format
if I do find them so even if I could read them they're probably nothing but
garbage by now.

I am familiar with the WordStar file format, and I could actually get them
back by manually editing them, but ... that's a pretty daunting task as
there are quite a few I suddenly find myself needing. Besides, I'd rather
get them all of course, and add them to the archives. Back in "that day"
backups and archives weren't even buzz words yet, and when the switch to MS
came along after WS went belly up, I never thought about converting them.
C'est le vie!
I have a win98 machine, full version and another winME CD set, if those
might have anything useful.

REWARD: Anyone providing a solution to this problem will earn my eternal
gratitude! <g>.

Regards,

Pop
 
Pop said:
Hi,

Please forgive the cross-post; I think I need a wide audience to find
the experience I need.

I am trying to recover some very old *.WSD files created by the old
word processor WordStar. I'm not sure whether it was the older DOS
version or the later Windows version that was used to create them, but
from the dates I suspect a mix.

Does anyone know of a converter that would be capable of
saving/changing these to Windows XP format; any of the Office or up to
date apps would be fine as there are probably viewers it it's an app I
don't have?
I'd prefer something that might be able to work in a batch mode, but
even having to open/close each file would still be acceptable -
beggers can't be choosers, right? <g>

I've tried the Office programs to no avail. Somewhere, I still have
the WordStar for windows floppies, but they're so old that I doubt
they'll be useful even if I do find them. They might even be CP/M
hard-sectored format if I do find them so even if I could read them
they're probably nothing but garbage by now.

I am familiar with the WordStar file format, and I could actually get
them back by manually editing them, but ... that's a pretty daunting
task as there are quite a few I suddenly find myself needing.
Besides, I'd rather get them all of course, and add them to the
archives. Back in "that day" backups and archives weren't even buzz
words yet, and when the switch to MS came along after WS went belly
up, I never thought about converting them. C'est le vie!
I have a win98 machine, full version and another winME CD set, if
those might have anything useful.

REWARD: Anyone providing a solution to this problem will earn my
eternal gratitude! <g>.

Regards,

Pop
Click to expand...


MS Office 2002 lets you save a document in Wordstar 4 or Wordstar 7
formats, so I would suspect it would also know how to read them.

You will find an interesting history of Wordstar at
http://www.wordstar.org/wordstar/history/history.htm along with some
links to possible solutions.
 
My sincere apologies for disappearing suddenly; I am disabled and sometimes
"go away" for periods of time like that.

I'm looking into the referred links now; thank you all for the valuable
information. Joy might exist after all!

Regards,

Pop
 
--
Let someone else do it
I'm retired!
Vanguard said:
MS Office 2002 lets you save a document in Wordstar 4 or Wordstar 7
formats, so I would suspect it would also know how to read them.

You will find an interesting history of Wordstar at
http://www.wordstar.org/wordstar/history/history.htm along with some links
to possible solutions.
Click to expand...

Hmm, no such animal on my system, XP Pro Office 2002. I'd already checked,
but looked again; no Save As for WS, and it won't open them. I don't seen
anything in Setup either. Maybe you had a utility you added?
Sokay, I'm making headway, I think.

Thanks anyway,

Pop
 
Galen said:
In Pop <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:




Try both OpenOffice ( www.openoffice.org ) and their forums. I seem to
recall that they had a bypass for this.

Galen
Click to expand...

If no luck with OpenOffice, (Corel)WordPerfect may be able to open your
WordStar files. You could ask in the corel.WordPerfect_older_versions
newsgroup(cnews.corel.com newsserver)or I will ask for you if you
prefer. If it does the job, an older version of WordPerfect could
probably be obtained fairly cheaply (if you ask around the net) with
which you then may be able to convert into Word docs if necessary.
Or if you prefer, since I have both WordPerfect 11 and MS Word 2000 on
my computer I could try some test conversions for you.

Ann W.
To E-mail remove the NOTSO from my addy.
 
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