Repair damaged WP files | Abbreviation expanders and replacement spelling dictionaries | Convert dBase files to WP merge files | Macro collections, manuals, and tools | Keyboard and other language tools | Non-blinking DOS cursor | TrueType and Type 1 Fonts with WPDOS 5.1 | StampIt for WordPerfect | Software by Seidman tools for WPDOS | MALT and MPE4WP: two utilities by Michael Shacter | Password recovery tools | Screen-reader software | Miscellaneous utilities | View WP files without WP | Books about WordPerfect | Home page
WordPerfect and Corel tools and links to Corel and other WPDOS sites 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.
A free Windows-based document-repair utility for WP 6.x or later files is available from Corel's web site. Download WPLook.exe and use it to repair file corruption and other problems in WPDOS 6.x files. Be cautious with this and any other repair utility; make a backup of any file before repairing it. (Corel's similar but earlier WP file repair utility may also be useful, but the newer WPLook.exe version may be more effective.)
David Seidman wrote a variety of shareware tools for repairing damaged WPDOS 5.x and 6.x files, reducing file size by removing excess data, and for extracting technical information from them. These tools may be found in the Software by Seidman section of this page.
The built-in spell-checking dictionaries in WPDOS can enhanced or replaced in two ways: with add-on abbreviation expanders (which automatically expand a preset abbreviation to a full word or phrase) or with replacement spelling dictionaries. These two solutions can be used together, or either can be used separately.
Abbreviation expanders for WPDOS are discussed in detail on this site's medical transcriptionist survival guide page.
Replacement spell-checking dictionaries in WPDOS are available from third-party sources. A variety of medical, pharmaceutical, technical, and legal dictionaries are available from Spellex Development. A replacement medical dictionary is available from Sylvan Software. A food-and-beverage spell checker is available from Linda Lipsky. If you know of other products that should be listed, please send me feedback.
For information on additional word-lists and spelling tools for medical transcriptionists, post a question at the WP51 bulletin board at MT Daily. Unfortunately, this site, formerly free to anyone, became an expensive paid-admission-only site in September 2002.
A utility written and generously provided by Jon Wilks converts dBase .dbf files into WPDOS 5.1 merge files; these files can of course also be used as merge files in WPDOS 6.x or WordPerfect for Windows. Download and run dbf2wp51.exe from the DOS command line, using the syntax: dbf2wp51 inputfile.dbf outputfile.dat (or any other filename or extension that you prefer).
See also the list of other miscellaneous links on this site's links page.
For WordPerfect 6.x:
By far the best book on WPDOS 6.x macros is Gordon McComb's WordPerfect 6 Power Tools. The book is out of print, but used copies can sometimes be found through used-book search engines; this link opens a search for this book on bookfinder.com; check the results carefully to be certain you get the correct title. The files originally included on a disk with the book are available from Gordon McComb's web site (unfortunately, some of the files on Gordon McComb's web site were corrupted when the site was transferred to a different server; the full set of uncorrupted files should instead be downloaded from this site in this self-extracting archive); the version posted on 10 July 2005 includes corrected code in two macros (thanks to Timothy J. McGowan).
Expertly written macros for legal and other expert users (including macro authors) may be found on the Yclipse site.
Informative articles on macros and other features, and dozens of macros (mostly for sale, not free) for many versions of WPDOS and WPWin, are available at the microCounsel site.
Three sets of elaborate and superbly well-written macros by Richard C. Belthoff include macros for law offices (WPDOS 6.x only), for WordStar veterans who want the complete WordStar Ctrl-key interface in WPDOS (WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x), and for anyone who needs to prepare legal timesheets (WPDOS 5.1, 6.x, and WPWin).
Larry Christensen's QwikMacro macro management utility is for sale from his web site.
Miscellaneous macros and other files of varying interest may be found in the Simtel collection's archive of WordPerfect freeware and shareware.
A small but valuable selection of macro-writing articles by Jerry Stern from WordPerfect Magazine may be found on his web site.
For WordPerfect 5.1:
A comprehensive and exceptionally useful set of hints, tips, macros, and links for WPDOS 5.1 may be found at the WP51 Center, maintained by Mitzi Ponce at the Voice Pro Inc. web site. This site is an essential resource for all WPDOS 5.1 users, not only the medical transcriptionists for whom it is primarily intended.
By far the best book on WPDOS 5.1 macros is Gordon McComb's WordPerfect 5.1 Macros and Templates. The full text of the book is available free in electronic format from Gordon McComb's web site, and this link opens a search for the book on bookfinder.com. The files on the two disks that accompanied the book (listed in detail on this page on Gordon McComb's web site) may be downloaded from this site in this archive file (posted with Gordon McComb's permission and also through the generosity of Timothy J. McGowan).
A variety of useful and ingenious macros by Norma Chase (including macros that provide useful information for other macro-writers) may be found on her web site. One of the macros lets you use WPDOS 5.1 as a math scratch pad.
Informative articles on macros, and dozens of macros (mostly for sale, not free) for many versions of WPDOS and WPWin, are available at the microCounsel site. One of the articles includes full code for a WPDOS 5.1 macro that dials telephone numbers through your modem.
Two WPDOS 5.1-compatible sets of macros by Richard C. Belthoff include macros for WordStar veterans who want the complete WordStar Ctrl-key interface in WPDOS (WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x), and for anyone who needs to prepare legal timesheets (WPDOS 5.1, 6.x, and WPWin).
David Adams's macros for converting WPDOS 5.1 files into HTML format are freely downloadable from his web page.
Alex Ogden's free set of macros for printing booklets from WPDOS 5.x is available from his web site.
An excellent WPDOS 5.1 macro for converting documents to HTML is available from David Adams' page at Southampton University.
A collection of over a hundred macros by Alan Kaplan for automating basic and complex features in WPDOS 5.x is available from the author's web site.
Gregory Sweitzer's "Macro Meistro," an extensive collection of simple WPDOS 5.1 macros for cutting, pasting, etc., may be downloaded from this site in this Maestro.zip archive.
Larry Christensen's QwikMacro macro management utility is for sale from his web site.
Andrew Roberts's WordPerfect 5.1 study guide will be useful for anyone who has the program but lacks a printed manual.
Microsoft offers detailed advice on converting WPDOS macros into Microsoft Word's Visual Basic for Applications language. A Microsoft Word template that converts WPDOS 5.1 macros into a plain text file (inside Word) is also available. (Note: This page seems to have disappeared; the link above is to an archived version.)
Various tools for managing and listing macros may be found among the Software by Seidman tools for WP5. If you only need a program that will list descriptions of WP5 macro files, download the Macrodsc.exe program written by Halász Sándor and kindly donated by Mr. Halász to this site. (Sample usage: macrodsc c:\drive\directory\*.wpm for a list of filenames and descriptions displayed on screen; macrodsc c:\drive\directory\*.wpm > filename.txt for the same list written to a text file.)
If you know of other well-written macro collections and tools, please contact me.
Freeware WP Language Assistants, written by Willem Smouter, are available for users who need to type only a few characters the Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic alphabets, and do not need the full-scale WP language modules.
A utility for converting WPDOS 6.x files with alphabets not included in the WP character set (like Tibetan) into files that display and print correctly under WPWin is available from this site's workaround page.
Utilities that convert Russian text files (in formats such as KOI-8, CP 1251, CP 866, LEXICON, and others) into WPDOS 5.x format may be downloaded from the web site of the author, Ralph E. Kenyon, Jr.
NoBlink Accelerator, by Robert Adamson, is a utility that creates a non-blinking block cursor in DOS and in Windows DOS boxes and full-screen DOS windows. (It also works at the Windows NT/2000/XP command prompt.) It is mostly compatible with WordPerfect, although the cursor sometimes disappears and needs to be restored by pressing the program's hotkey (Ctrl-Shift-5). Robert Adamson has generously made this program available at no charge to users (it was formerly a commercial product), although he retains the copyright. Despite minor problems, I find the steady NoBlink cursor more restful to look at than the ordinary blinking DOS cursor.
Note: The size of the cursor, but not the blink rate, can also be changed with the CURSOR.COM utility that shipped with WPDOS. A full-size block cursor is easier to find on screen than the standard cursor, especially on laptops. If you cannot find a copy of CURSOR.COM on your system, it may be downloaded in the "small utilities" archive on Corel's FTP site.
If you use TrueType for WordPerfect or PrimeType for WordPerfect and want to print to a network or USB printer, or fax through a Windows fax program, please contact me. Full instructions will be posted here in the future.
WPDOS 6.x supports TrueType and Type 1 (PostScript) soft fonts without the need for any additional software, and can print these fonts to any printer that supports graphics. WPDOS 5.1 can use TrueType fonts only with the help of an add-on utility, TrueType for WordPerfect, by LaserTools, a company that no longer exists. The product is no longer available for sale, but the original authors have generously permitted this site to make it available for download in a 3.5 MB self-extracting TT4WP51.EXE archive. (Note: The final version of the program, dated 13 September 1993, was posted on this site on 3 May 2001, replacing the older version that had been posted until then.) To use this program, you must run TTWP.EXE, not WP.EXE (some explanations are included with the archive).
Hebrew and Arabic versions of TrueType for WordPerfect were designed for use the WPDOS 5.1 Arabic Language Module dated 27 April 1993 and the Hebrew Language Module dated 19 May 1993. These TTWP programs were not included in the CD issue of the WP Language Modules, but may be downloaded in this 750 KB self-extracting TTHebrew.exe archive and this 710 KB self-extracting TTArabic.exe archive. (The Arabic version may also be used for Farsi and Urdu.) After downloading one or the other, copy the downloaded program into a temporary directory; run it to extract the files, and run the Install program. These versions are useful only with the Hebrew and Arabic versions of (or modules for) WPDOS 5.1.
Note: TrueType for WordPerfect may not recognize some recent TrueType fonts with large symbol sets, and may refuse to install them. If you need a basic set of TrueType fonts for use with TTWP, try to find a copy of Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and use the TrueType fonts in the Windows\System directory, or you may download this self-extracting WIN31TTF.EXE file (680 KB) that contains the font files; the self-extracting file will run only under Windows in order to insure that the copyrighted fonts are accessible only to users who already have a copy of Windows.
LaserTools also created PrimeType for WordPerfect (marketed outside the US as Adobe TypeManager for WordPerfect), a tool for use with Type 1 soft fonts, which allows these fonts to be used in WPDOS 5.1 with non-PostScript printers that support graphics. I have not been able to locate a copy of this program on the Internet. The original authors have told me that Adobe is legally entitled to a royalty on every copy sold, so the program may not legally be posted for downloading (although it is very unlikely that anyone at Adobe cares very much about this after ten years). If you have a full copy of this program that you no longer need, please contact me.
One useful feature of PrimeType for WordPerfect was its ability to install Type 1 soft fonts into existing WPDOS 5.1 PostScript printer drivers (in addition to making the fonts usable with non-PostScript drivers). The files that perform this function contain no copyrighted Adobe code, and, thanks to the generosity of the original authors, that portion of PrimeType for WordPerfect may be downloaded from this site.
Note: LaserTools also created Fonts-on-the-Fly, which used the Intellifont font format with WPDOS 5.x in the same way that PrimeType used Type 1 fonts. None of these utilities is needed with WPDOS 6.x, because WPDOS 6.x includes its own internal support for TrueType and Type 1 soft fonts (along with Speedo, Intellifont, and PCL bitmap soft fonts).
Note that the original WPDOS 5.1 PostScript printer drivers include support for many Adobe soft font packages; these drivers are available from Corel's web site; search for the string "PostScript (additional" with only one parenthesis.
With the permission of SoftMaker, Inc., this site also has a free download of infiniType Plus, a program (like PrimeType) that lets you use Type 1 PostScript fonts with WordPerfect for DOS. To install and run the program, do the following: (1) Download this self-extracting Itdisks.exe archive and save it to a temporary directory; open a DOS prompt and navigate to the temporary directory; run the Itdisks.exe to extract three further programs; run each of the programs in order to create a set of three installation floppy disks for infiniType Plus (you will need three diskettes). (2) Run the installation program from the first diskette; when prompted to choose the printer, choose one that seems most like your existing printer. (3) To launch the program, run the IT.exe program, not WP.exe or WP.com; you can create a shortcut for IT.exe using the techniques found elsewhere on this site; make sure to enable Expanded (EMS) Memory on the Memory tab of the shortcut. You will see references in the IT printer drivers to "special effects" such as shading and other typographic variations; ignore these, as they are unusable without a copy of the printed manual.
StampIt for WordPerfect was a commercial program that made it easy to print watermark-style text like "Secret" or "Draft" diagonally across pages. Through the generosity of the authors of the program, Enhancement Software, versions of StampIt for WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS and for WordPerfect 6.x for DOS are now available for no charge from this site.
For WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS: StampIt 2.0 for WordPerfect 5.1 may be downloaded in this self-extracting archive (STMPTW51.EXE). After downloading the file, move it to a temporary directory, run the archive program to unpack the files, and copy all the unpacked files (except STMPW51.EXE) to a floppy disk. Run the Install.exe program from the floppy disk to install the program; the installer will not run from a subdirectory on your hard disk or any other disk. Please visit the Enhancement Software web site and try a copy of StampIt for Microsoft Word for Windows.
Warning: For reasons that I do not understand, with the installer will sometimes fail with a "Runtime Error 202" message after you type the drive letter that contains your WP files. On my system, the error occurs when I choose drive C:, but does not occur when I choose drive E: (which contains a different copy of WPDOS). If you encounter this problem, you may want to use a program like PartitionMagic to create a 2GB FAT drive (instead of the NTFS drives that are standard under Windows 2000, XP, and Vista), and install WPDOS on that drive. This will also protect you from the F5-F5 problem that WPDOS 5.1 has with the NTFS drive format used by default with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.
For WordPerfect 6.x for DOS: StampIt for WordPerfect 6.0 may be downloaded in this self-extracting archive (STAMP6D.EXE). After downloading the files, run it under Windows, and let it extract the file to a temporary directory (it will suggest C:\TEMP\STAMPIT6, but it can be any convenient directory). After extracting the files, read the included README!.TXT file for instructions for installing and running the program.
David Seidman formerly offered a popular set of utilities for WPDOS 5 and 6 at his own web site. Because that site is closed, he has generously allowed his utilities to be offered here, and has included the full set of registered programs, together with some minor updates that were never available publicly. Because the tools are so extensive, details may be found on separate pages devoted to the Software by Seidman tools for WPDOS 5.x and to the Software by Seidman tools for WPDOS 6.x.
Michael Shacter, the author of two classic utility packages for WPDOS, has generously made them available through this site, and has released them as freeware. They may be downloaded in the form of self-extracting archives.
MALT (More Alt-Keys for the Perfects) is a memory resident utility (TSR) that adds 90 new keys for running Alt-like macros in DOS versions of WordPerfect 5.x and 6.x.
MPE4WP is a replacement for the WPDOS 5.x macro editor that lets you create and edit macros in an editing screen that has full editing capabilities. (The same capability is built-in to WPDOS 6.x.)
Note: A corrected self-extracting file for MPE4WP was uploaded on 31 July 2001, replacing a defective copy that was posted earlier.
Commercial tools for recovering lost passwords for password-protected files are available from a number of vendors. Currently available products include those by ElcomSoft, Passware, and AccessData, plus a document-recovery service from Password Crackers.
Freeware password-removal software is available for password-protected WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 files only. All the programs that I know about are contained in this compressed archive.
The JAWS for DOS screen-reader software (for users who have difficulty seeing the screen) is now available from its vendor as a free download. Go to the vendor's web site, scroll down to "JAWS for DOS freeware" to download the program; the next item on the same page provides instructions for installing the software.
I have not tested any of these programs and do not know enough about them to endorse any of them.
Wp2Html: A widely-used DOS-based program by Andrew Scriven that converts WPDOS 5.x and 6.x files to HTML, available from the author's Wp2Html page. The program is free for evaluation; a registered copy with support costs a small amount.
WPAHTML: A free Windows-based program that converts WPDOS 5.1 files to HTML may be found at the WPAHTML home page.
WP2LaTeX: A free program that converts WordPerfect files (all versions) into LaTeX. May perhaps also be useful in retrieving data from damaged WP files. Download from the WP2LaTeX home page.
The Letterhead Kit: A set of macros and templates for correspondence, labels, etc., for WPDOS 5.x and 6.x is for sale from Science Translations.
GraphKat: A program for producing printable catalogues of your fonts and graphics from within WPDOS 5.x or 6.x is for sale from Science Translations.
FontKat: A program for producing printable catalogues of your fonts within WPDOS 6.x is for sale from Science Translations.
Shroom (Shell Room): A utility that increases available DOS memory when a program "shells" to DOS (as in WPDOS, Ctrl-F1, Go to DOS); apparently useful only for older WPDOS versions (such as the original version 5.1) that do not use WP.COM for similar functions. It seems to have no effect on versions 5.1+ or 6.x, unless these are run with the /DL startup switch. Download a copy from Klaus Meinhard's 4DOS information page (search for Shroom).
If you have old WordPerfect for DOS files but no longer have WordPerfect, you can view their contents in many different ways, among them:
(1) Any version of Microsoft Word for Windows can read and open WPDOS files. You may need to run the Word (or Microsoft Office) installer program and add import filters if the import filters do not already exist on your system. See another page on this site for further information on importing WP files into Word.
(2) Any version of WordPerfect for Windows can open WPDOS files. Buy a copy.
(3) Quick View Plus is the most widely-used file viewer on the Windows platform, and reads all WPDOS files. Buy a copy from the "online store" link on the Quick View Plus web page.
(4) View, a DOS-based freeware program, by Windmill Shareware, displays the contents of files created by WP and many other programs. Download from this link. (The author says you may now ignore all statements about payment that you may find in the documentation.)
WordPerfect for DOS was the subject of hundreds of third-party books; a few stand out above all the rest: the two books by Gordon McComb about WPDOS macros (described in the macro section elsewhere on this site) and the following titles published by Que Corporation:
For WordPerfect 5.1: Using WordPerfect 5.1 Special Edition (Que, 1989; ISBN 0880225548), and a later edition, Using WordPerfect 5.1 & 5.1+ for DOS Special Edition (Que, 1995; ISBN 0789702398). This link opens a search for these books on bookfinder.com. Check the results carefully to make certain you find the right title; some similar titles refer to books about Windows versions.
For WordPerfect 6.x: Using WordPerfect 6, Special Edition (Que, 1992; ISBN 1565290771; a label on some copies changes the ISBN to 1565293517). The title on the cover (which differs slightly from the title-page title) reads: Using WordPerfect Version 6 for DOS, Special Edition. Some booksellers omit the words "Special Edition" when listing the book, but there was no non-special edition, so any book with approximately this title, published by Que Corporation, is the one you want. This link opens a search for this book on bookfinder.com. Check the results carefully to make certain you find the right title; some similar titles refer to books about Windows versions.