Word Perfect 5.1 for Dos

I have no idea, (I'll guess yes) but a re-install on your '98 box should answer that question fairly quickly.

I haven't seen any above-board downloads of WP51, but it's visible on the torrents. Technically that's not legal but you can make up your own mind about that.

However, upgrading is a very viable option.

Microsoft Word can be used with a WordPerfect file converter. OpenOffice can READ WordPerfect files, but you'll have to save them in another format. Ditto for LibreOffice (the OpenOffice fork).

Microsoft options will cost money, OpenOffice and LibreOffice are all free. Both Microsoft Word and Open/LibreOffice have a learning curve associated with them, since they (well EVERYTHING) is so vastly different to WP51.

There are probably some more options (WordPerfect is up to v11) but that and just about all the other options might involve money, and all will have a learning curve anyway.

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Say it with flowers - Give her a triffid.

I've run it under Windows 7 CMD (replaced DOS prompt). I've never actually installed WP5.1 since the first time, I've just copied the WP directory over. It has been carried over on a sucession of computers from when I first got it on a 286 running MS/DOS 3.3.

The latest one runs Windos 7, but Windows 98 was one step along the way.

Geoff.

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Making your enemy reliant on software you support is the best revenge.

I urge you to copy your files NOW -- right now -- before you do anything else.

If I thought my hard drive were failing, I wouldn't be able to sleep until everything was backed up.

s/v11/v15/ although they label it "X5" because they got cold feet when they moved to V13 (oooo scary) and started with the "X3" nonsense.

One interesting observation is that WP has retained the same file format since version 6, unlike a certain other that insists on incompatible file format changes with every version. It will save-as back to version

4, as well. Sadly, it wants WinXP and up so Win98 is right out.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA

I enjoyed WP 5.1 and got very good at it. Then they did the WYSIWYG interface. I suppose that was nice, but it got in the way of actually doing the more important stuff.

If I remember correctly, the discs just had everything you needed to copy onto your hard drive. Not like the intrusive drives and .dll files and registry stuff that is required with the windows environment.

You should be able to just copy everything over to a new hard drive on the win98 system. And of course twiddle a bit with the autoexec and sysinfo files and be good to go.

I run a pair of Win98 SE systems specifically for dealing with a bunch of MS-DOS legacy programs.

Jeff

Several issues here.

WP5.1 will run on Win98se, WinME, W2K, and XP. The biggest problem is getting the printer drivers to cooperate. There is a setting to use the Windoze drivers instead of the WP print drivers. That's the easy way and works, but you loose some formatting features. I have a customer with WP5.1 on a WinME system, so I presume that Win98 should work. There's nothing to install. Just copy it over to the new drive.

This might help: "WordPerfect for DOS Updated"

Juggling hard drives with a failing hard disk drive is a guaranteed way of trashing the failing drive. Just moving the machine is a risk. Copy off what you can immediately, and figure out what you're going to do with it later. I suggest:

for a recovery tool. $30/$50/$70 depending on features.

WP is owned by Corel and is not freeware.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

There is a program available on the web, "Yeah Write", which has a free version and imports WP51. Worth having a peek.

If a given piece of software does what you want, and isn't unduly difficult to use, there's little point in switching.

But...

Last year I started writing screenplays. "Final Draft" costs about $250, and the current version won't run under W2K. *

So I sat down and created an Word for Windows template using industry-standard formatting. It took little time and works well.

Perhaps it's the time to switch to Word for Windows -- at the expense, of course, of having to create new template(s) and convert existing files to the new format. (Word recognizes WP 5.1 format.)

• "Final Draft" supposedly formats as you type. When writing a script, that's the least of my worries.

Why not copy the dos HD to a new disk? Just make sure that you format it with format /u/s d: so that the mbr and bootfiles are on it.

Oh and put a reasonable primary partition(

-- @~@ You have the right to remain silent. / v \ Simplicity is Beauty! May the Force and farces be with you! /( _ )\ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.2 ^ ^ 22:11:01 up 1 day 6:34 0 users load average: 1.00 1.01 1.05 ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ????? (CSSA):

Have a read at

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This persons should make a copy of the website to maybe Google Sites, in case the author would leave Columbia University.... :)

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That has already been done:

See:

for how it works.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Linux will run USB drive (if the BIOS supports that) or from a CD, saving data to a thumbdrive. (The existence of these memes freak out some M$ crapware users.) Ot's a very cool way to extend the life of an old box.

(I **DON'T** recommend *any other* version of Puppy.)

What a waste of good hardware. See "Linux", above. I was hoping *this* would work out, but it appears not.

If it does, the additional invocation of COMMAND.COM under Windoze is a ridiculous way to go.

Editing AUTOEXEC.BAT to call your DOS app

**before** Windoze starts gives a *real* DOS environment. This ASSuMEs you have WP device drivers for the peripherals (printer?) connected to that box.

Using Free Software (gratis and libre) is worth a try. Using a FOSS

boot manager will give you a dual-boot.

This is also far superior to the crap OSes that M$ produced last century.

*-effort&strip=1#File_systems

See if this is relevant to your needs.

I run DOS 6.22 and Windows 7 in Oracle's VM Virtual box for LINUX!

Didn't need 7 anymore but didn't want to ditch it nor did I want to keep on dual booting when I didn't boot into Windows 7 for months.

Like to keep both DOS and 7 on hand to help answer some technical questions.

There is also a product called VMWare. I think both lite versions are freeware.

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Live Fast Die Young, Leave A Pretty Corpse

Why, when

does this more or less automatically? :)

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Is the website's data PERMANENT? :)

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Yes.

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On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:18:52 -0700, Evan Platt put finger to keyboard and composed:

Not always. Sometimes the owner of the original web site complains and the data are then removed, or at least made unavailable. The Wayback Machine always accedes to such requests.

- Franc Zabkar

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