Obtaining WPDOS | Corel FTP and knowledge base pages | Discussion groups and forums | Online beginners' guides | Other sites and links | Older WPWin versions | WP for the Macintosh and Apple II | A note on Microsoft Word | General-interest DOS sites | Home page
WordPerfect and Corel tools and third-party utilities and tools may be found on separate pages.
If you get error messages when you try to download files from Corel's web site, see this site's troubleshooting guide for Corel downloads.
WordPerfect for DOS is no longer marketed by Corel. Fully legal replacement and upgrade copies of WordPerfect 5.1+ for DOS and WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS may be purchased on CD-R discs from Carol Reese (email: thewp51lady at knology.net), who has permission from Corel to make these sales. Copies can only be shipped to addresses in the United States and Canada; in other countries, probably the best way to obtain a copy is through eBay or a local user group. (Important note, July 2007: Carol Reese will not be able to fill orders for WPDOS until August 2007; please do not send any requests until after that date. If you sent a request to a verizon.net address, and did not receive a reply, please resend to the knology.net address above.)
A few notes on the differences between 5.1+ and earlier 5.1 versions, and between 6.2 and earlier 6.x versions, may be found elsewhere on this site. (The WPDOS 6.2 disk available from Carol Reese contains only the WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS program and WPDOS add-ons such as ScreenExtender and Fontware; it does not include Quattro Pro or Presentations or other programs that were included in the WordPerfect Office Suite for DOS.)
Important: a license number for WordPerfect 5.x (either the DOS or Windows version) is required to buy WPDOS 5.1+, and a license number for WordPerfect 6.x (either the DOS or Windows version) is required to buy WordPerfect 6.2. Do not even ask to buy a copy unless you can supply an existing license number.
If you do not already have a license number for WPDOS, read the rest of this paragraph. If you want to obtain a license number for WordPerfect, or if you want a copy that includes a printed manual (a manual is extremely useful), or if you need earlier versions of WordPerfect for DOS, you can buy one of the boxed copies of WPDOS 6.x and 5.x that are available for auction on eBay (this link searches on eBay for the words "WordPerfect" and "DOS"). You may also buy a copy of WordPerfect for Windows 5.x or 6.x in order to obtain a license number that you can use when buying the corresponding version off WordPerfect for DOS. When bidding on eBay, read the product descriptions very carefully before bidding; some items are merely books about WordPerfect, not copies of the program itself. If you want to obtain a licence number when buying on eBay, be certain to ask the seller if the box includes a certificiate with a license number. Full commercial boxes should always contain a license number. Boxes labeled "Trade-up" (meaning a competitive upgrade from a different product) probably will contain a license number. Boxes labeled "Upgrade" probably will not contain a license number (unless also labeled "Trade-up"). "Academic" copies sometimes contain a license number but sometimes do not. Copies sold on "bare" CD discs, without a box, almost never include a license number.
Note: Packages labeled "upgrade" contained the same disks and manuals included in full packages, but were priced differently. "Upgrade" packages may be installed in the same way that full packages are installed, and do not require any earlier version to be on your hard disk.
Some on-line vendors sell used and obsolete software. Among the vendors that sometimes offer WordPerfect for DOS are ComputerPartsGalore.com and EMS Professional Software (note that many of the items listed at the top of the menu on the EMS site are not actually available for sale).
Corel maintains an extensive knowledge base of questions and answers about its applications; much of the material dates back to the period when WP belonged to Novell, and some seems even older; the link takes you to the old Corel knowledge base interface that lest you search for articles on WPDOS 5.x and 6.x. (The new knowledge base interface does not include menu items for older versions.)
For WPDOS 6.x, Corel offers an interface to the FTP site for WPDOS 6.x downloads. A separate page on Corel's site contains printer drivers for both versions.
Diskette copies of WPDOS 6.x did not include all available video graphics or printer drivers; some were available only as downloads or special orders. All except one of these additional drivers are now available on the Corel pages listed above; the exception is the Trident video graphics driver, a copy of which may be downloaded from this site (if nonsense characters appear in your browser when you click on the link, right-click the link and select Save Link As...). Links to other video drivers may be found on this site's graphics mode page and text mode page.
For WPDOS 5.1, Corel offers an interface to the FTP site for WPDOS 5.1 downloads. Links to other video drivers may be found on this site's graphics mode page and text mode page.
Important note: if you are looking for the WPDOS 5.1 Convert.exe utility, you will not find it on the Corel interface to the FTP site listed in the preceding paragraph; the Conv51.exe file listed there is only a text file about the Convert.exe program, not the program itself. Use this link to download the Convert.exe program.
If you have questions about any versions of WPDOS, you may ask them in any of three reasonably active discussion groups and forums devoted to the program.
The WPDOS forum at WordPerfect Universe is frequented by many knowledgeable users willing to share their expertise; you must sign in before posting messages. The site also has a helpful list of links devoted to WP bonus and legacy applications.
Corel maintains "newsgroups" devoted to questions and answers about various versions of WordPerfect. Start at the newsgroups page at Corel.com, and use the link "Corel WordPerfect Older Version)," or use this link to open the group in your Internet news reader.
See also the list of other sites and links, below.
Andrew Roberts's compact and informative WordPerfect 5.1 study guide will be useful for anyone who has the program but lacks a printed manual.
A tips-and-tricks site with useful information on running WPDOS (and WP for Windows) may be found at the Microcounsel site.
See also the list of macros and macro tools on this site's tools page.
An extensive Spanish-language WPDOS 5.1 site by Lorenzo Peña includes links, documents, downloads, and brief instructions for running WPDOS under Linux.
An exceptionally detailed set of useful links for WPDOS 5.1 may be found on links page at the WP51 Center, maintained by Mitzi Ponce at the Voice Pro Inc. web site. The links include access to Microsoft's knowledge base pages concerning WPDOS under Windows 3.x and problems when opening WPDOS 5.1 files in Microsoft Word.
The Avery Office Products web site includes links to documents that explain how to create and print labels in WordPerfect for DOS 5.1 and 6.x. See the technical bulletins listed under "Corel WordPerfect"; some of the documents actually refer to WP for the Macintosh, but others describe WPDOS.
All the pages on Microsoft's support site that refer to WordPerfect for DOS may be accessed from these Microsoft Knowledge Base search results.
Discussions of WPDOS 5.1 as used by medical transcriptionists may be found on the MT Daily site. Unfortunately, this site, formerly free to anyone, became an expensive paid-admission-only site in September 2002.
Well-informed discussions of WPDOS under OS/2 may be found in the Yahoo discussion group devoted to OS/2 Word Processing.
A very miscellaneous collection of utilities, graphics, drivers, and other files for use with WPDOS 5.1 may be found through external links at the Metropoli Files collection. The internal links to the collection itself no longer function, but almost all the listed files may be downloaded from one of the alternate sites listed on the page.
A miscellaneous collection of WPDOS macros, utilities, and other files may be downloaded from the Simtel.net; search for WordPerfect (or WordPerfect macros) in the search engine on the page.
Miscellaneous macros and other WP-related files (including a WPDOS 6.x keyboard layout and other options for use with braille and speech interfaces) may be found in the file libraries at ChatNFiles.com.
An excellent, well-maintained archive of DOS utilities may be found on Dev Anand Teelucksingh's Interesting DOS Programs page.
Some notes about compatibility with current Windows versions for older versions of WordPerfect for Windows may be found on a separate page.
Information on WordPerfect for the Macintosh has been moved to a separate page on this site.
WordPerfect Corporation reportedly sold the rights to WordPerfect for the Apple IIe/IIc and WordPerfect for the Apple IIGS to a defunct company called Quality Software in 1990; the final versions are now freely downloadable. See also this page of frequently-asked questions.
This site has no prejudices for or against any product. If you want to use a
DOS word processor that is very different from WPDOS, feel free to download from Microsoft's web site,
at no cost, a full copy of
Microsoft Word for DOS 5.5
in an International English version. After downloading, copy the Wd55_ben.exe
file to the directory in which you want to install Word, and enter the DOS
command:
Web sites with detailed information on DOS, including links to utility and other software, include Doctor DOS's DOS site and the Interesting DOS Programs site. I hope to add further such sites in the future.