Converting Wordstar files

[Samson Tu]

Hi,

I am helping a computer-naive lady converting her Wordstar files to
DOS readable format. She wrote her memoire in Wordstar
that runs on a Compaq DOS machine. As examined in the
DOS OS, the Wordstar files have unreadable formating
characters. The FAQ mentioned that it is possible to produce
ascii text from programs such as Wordstar (e.g. print to disk).
Can a kind soul explain the steps to produce such ascii files to a
Wordstar-naive user? My lady does not have a Wordstar manual.

Alternatively, can somone points me to a conversion program
that will filter out the formating characters and produce ascii
text? The FAQ mentions that there are some tools under DOS that will
convert word processing file data among different word processors,
but does not mention any by name.

Thanks.

Samson
t...@camis.stanford.edu

[James LaRue]

Samson Tu (t...@camis.stanford.edu) wrote:
: I am helping a computer-naive lady converting her Wordstar files to

Samson, there are several ways to go. There was a program produced by
a company called Sprite that converted Wordstar files to ASCII. I
believe at oak.oakland.edu there is a shareware utility that does the
same thing. You can ftp it -- I think it's under the /pub/msdos/wp
directory.

Alternatively, you can use the Wordstar print command (Ctrl-K, P),
then type "ASCII>output" (ignore the quotes, and where output=the file
name) and Wordstar will print to file. This assumes that your lady has
Wordstar 4.0 or better.

Hope this is of some use.es

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James LaRue * "You can observe a lot by watching."
email: jla...@csn.org * -- Yogi Berra
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[TriSoft]

As you have been told, there are several approaches here. Are the files
still on the CP/M machine? If so, then there are a couple of ways to have
it turn them into plain text.

1) PIP can copy the files. Something like:

PIP dest.txt=source.wst[Z]

will do it.

2) Wordstar, either under CP/M *OR* under DOS can do it. Open the document
file as a non-document (N option) and do a ^QU command.

3) It is much better if you do NOT convert the files to text. Remember
that the files ARE compatible with current DOS and Windows versions of
Wordstar.

4) Many/most DOS editors can import the files directly. This includes
things up to fancy desktop publishing packages like Aldus Pagemaker.

jmk

[Samson Tu]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I've found the the MS Word filter
that can convert the Wordstar files.

Samson

[Will Rose]

Samson Tu (t...@camis.stanford.edu) wrote:
: Hi,

: I am helping a computer-naive lady converting her Wordstar files to
: DOS readable format. She wrote her memoire in Wordstar
: that runs on a Compaq DOS machine. As examined in the
: DOS OS, the Wordstar files have unreadable formating
: characters. The FAQ mentioned that it is possible to produce
: ascii text from programs such as Wordstar (e.g. print to disk).
: Can a kind soul explain the steps to produce such ascii files to a
: Wordstar-naive user? My lady does not have a Wordstar manual.

In a modern (> 4.0?) Wordstar, when you go to print a file
there's a selection of printers; one of these is ASCII, which
produces ascii text, I think in a file called ws.asc by default.

: Alternatively, can somone points me to a conversion program

: that will filter out the formating characters and produce ascii
: text? The FAQ mentions that there are some tools under DOS that will
: convert word processing file data among different word processors,
: but does not mention any by name.

I think most modern WP's will read-in Wordstar files. Certainly
WP will, but you'll need a manual for the new WP to find out how.
Wordstar (basically) just sets the high bit on many characters.
You can get a reasonable ASCII result just by stripping this off,
tho' you will still get some page-number/form-feed garbage.

Will
c...@crash.cts.com

[Mathias Niemz]

Normaly, a lot of dos- and windows-programs can read wordstar
files. You should look for function like 'import'. Ami-Pro can
read this stuff by setting the format on read. This works with
CP/M files too. There is just a problem with foreign text to con-
vert the characters...

--
Mathias Niemz
Snailmail: Lisztstrasse 11 - 31141 Hildesheim - Germany
E-Mail: 76206...@Compuserve.com