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The vDosWP System for WPDOS under 64-bit Windows (2014 version)


How to install it | How to use it | Printing | Use your old printer driver | PostScript-based printing |Graphics, color, italics, etc. | Euro support | Codepage settings | WordPerfect Editor, Office, and ShellAbbreviation expander setup | Home page


Important: This page describes a older version of this system, which uses a separate vDosDisk folder and different drive letters and paths from your actual Windows computer. It has been superseded by the new vDosWP-VDM system described on another page.

The vDosWP system runs WordPerfect for DOS 5.1, 6.1, or 6.2 under Windows XP or later, including Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you recently bought a new Windows computer, it almost certainly uses either 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8, and it requires a system like this one to run WordPerfect for DOS.

If you still have Windows XP, you do not need this system! It is useful only under 64-bit Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8. (If you are one of the very few people with 32-bit Windows 7 or 8, then you don't need this system.)

Note: The vDosWP system is one of two different systems provided by this site that let you run WPDOS under 64-bit Windows. The other is the WP-64 system described on another page.

The vDosWP system is based on vDos, by Jos Schaars, a Windows program that runs DOS applications in a window on the Windows desktop or in full-screen mode. Like DOSBox (the basis of this site’s older WP-64 system), vDos creates a DOS “environment” that acts like a “virtual” computer inside your real one. For example, drive C:\ in vDos is actually a directory on your hard disk that may have a name like C:\Users\roscoe\vDosWP\vDosDisk (where “roscoe” is your Windows user name). You absolutely must understand this concept while using vDosWP.

Compared with other methods of running WPDOS on modern Windows computer, the vDosWP system has these advantages:

Disadvantages of the vDosWP system include:

If you find this system useful, please visit this page.

Note: This site provides a similar system for the Macintosh (the link may not yet be active!) that runs under OS X 10.6 or later.


How to install the vDosWP method

1. You will need a copy of your WPDOS program files from your old computer. If you use WPDOS 5.1, copy the entire WP51 folder from your old computer to a USB drive or some other disk, or copy the whole folder to your new computer. If you have WPDOS 6.x, copy your entire COREL folder, if you have one, or your entire WP61 or WP62 and WPC61DOS or WPC62DOS folders) to a USB device and copy the folder(s) to your new computer. (You can also e-mail the folders to yourself or use any other method of transferring them, of course.) If you copied to a USB drive, plug it into your new computer, and make sure you can find it in Windows Explorer!

Don’t be clueless! If you do not have either WordPerfect for DOS 5.1 or WordPerfect for DOS 6.x on your old computer, you will not find the folder for that version on your old computer. Clueless Visitor No. 44 asked how to find those files on his old computer even though he had no reason to believe that he had ever had them. Please do not follow the example of Clueless Visitor No. 44. (One of a series of “Don’t be clueless!” messages provided by this site as a public service.)

2. Download and run the vDosWPSetup installer program. This is what will happen when you run the installer:

Note: The installer does its best to copy all the files you need for a non-US version of WordPerfect 6.x. If it tells you that you need to follow the instructions to copy the correct files, then study and perform the steps described in this note. First, you must find all the files that have names in the format WP_WP_XX.* and WP_FI_XX.* and any other files with the file specification WP_??_XX.* (where XX is your country code) in your WordPerfect folder in your existing system (typically C:\WP61 or C:\WP62 or  C:\COREL and in your Writing Tools folder (typically C:\WPC61DOS or C:\WPC62DOS or C:\COREL); copy all those files into the corresponding folders in the vDosWP\vDosDisk folder. Also copy all files that match these file specifications: *.LEX, *.THS, *.DTL, *.ICR, and *.SUP into the corresponding folders in the vDosWP\vDosDisk folder. Do not copy any other files! Absolutely do not copy any file with the filename extension .SET. If, when you launch vDosWP, you see an error message telling you a file is missing or incorrect, then copy that file also (and please tell me about it).

3. Double-click on a vDosWP desktop shortcut. If you allowed the installer to create one or more desktop shortcuts, you will find those shortcuts on your desktop, named vDosWP51, vDosWP61, or vDosWP62. Double-click on one to launch vDosWP. When the program opens, you may press Alt-Enter to switch to full-screen mode (and back again). You may press Win+F11 to reduce the size of the window, or Win+F12 to enlarge the window.

Troubleshooting: If the program displays an error message about a missing "MSVC100.dll" file, then open the vDosWP\Programs folder and double-click MSVC100.dll missing. Your browser will open a Microsoft web page from which you can download and install the missing file. (Ignore the "recommended" downloads if any are proposed; click "No thanks and continue" or some similar button, and proceed to the download page.

In vDosWP, the default WP documents directory will be D:\ which is actually your Windows desktop folder. Drive C: in vDos will be the vDosWP\vDosDisk folder which (unless you changed this during the installation) is inside your user folder.

The installer creates a shortcut on your desktop to your vDosWP folder. You can use that shortcut to find any of the folders described below.

Warning: Don’t be clever! Don’t be ingenious! Don’t change the names of the files or the folders in this system! The system will not work if you change some of its filenames and folder names! If you absolutely insist on ignoring this advice, be prepared to change the system back to its original state! Don’t ask me for help putting everything back together, because I warned you very clearly about the consequences of your actions. Read the frequently-asked questions on this page before you start changing things! Don’t waste your valuable time clicking on “compatibility” tabs! If I don’t explicitly tell you to do something, don’t do it! If you are foolish, clueless, or self-defeating enough to insist on doing it anyway, do not ask me to help you to figure out why it didn’t work!

Second warning: Don't move this system after you install it! If you need to put it into a different folder, first either delete the entire vDosWP folder (or run the Uninstall vDosWP program from the Start Menu or Control Panel), then run the installer again, specifying a different folder in the Select Destination Location screen.

A note for network users: This system can access files across a network if you assign a drive letter to your networked drives. However, do not expect it work as it did in a system where WordPerfect was installed specifically to be networked - in other words, when WordPerfect was installed in such a way that every user must enter his or her initials when WordPerfect starts, and the user’s settings are then picked up from a central storage directory somewhere on the network. If you want to use settings that are now stored in a settings file in a networked location, you will need to recreate those settings by hand in the copy of WordPerfect that you use in this system.

Convenient ways to access files and folders: This system lets you access files in multiple ways, in addition to the List Files screen in WP itself:

To open files with long file names: The vDos system does not display files with Windows-style long file names in directory listings. However, you may open and edit any WP file that has a Windows-style long name by dropping it on a vDosWP shortcut. The file will open in WPDOS, and its containing folder will be displayed in WPDOS as drive Y: (Note: Versions of this system posted before 8 October 2014 required you to run a separate utility before you could open files with long filenames in this way; this separate utility is no longer used, has no further function, and will be removed if you download and install the current version of the system.)

Open vDosWP in full-screen mode: With vDosWP, “full-screen” almost always means “a blue WP screen with a black background on two sides or all sides, but without anything else visible on screen.” If you start vDosWP in its default windowed mode, you can press Alt-Enter to switch to full-screen mode. If you always want to start vDosWP in full-screen mode, go to the vDosWP folder, open either the 51Config, 61Config, 62Config folder (or other Config or Conf folder for the Shell or Editor if you use them); edit the CONFIG.TXT file in Windows Notepad or some other text editor; find the line that reads WINDOW = 65 and change 65 to 100 ; then save the file and restart vDosWP.

Customize the desktop shortcut: You can add WP startup switches to the vDosWP desktop shortcut, or make one or more copies of the desktop shortcut, adding different startup switches to each. To do this, right-click on the desktop shortcut, choose Properties, then the Shortcut tab, and in the Target field, scroll all the way to the end, add a space and then the startup switches that you want to use (for example, /m-macroname). Of course, you may also add startup switches to the line that launches WP in the AUTOEXEC.TXT file; for instructions on finding and editing this file, see another section of this page.

Add vDosWP to the Windows 8.1 start screen: You can add the icon for vDosWP to the tiles displayed on the Windows 8.1 start screen. From the start screen, click on the circled arrow at the lower left of the screen. Find vDosWP51, vDosWP61, or vDos62 in the list of applications; right-click on the one you want and select "Pin to start" or some similar choice. The icon will now appear among the start screen tiles (possibly off-screen at the far right, but you can drag it to the left for easier access).

Keyboard help: For a list of special keystrokes used  by this system, click the C: icon at the upper left of the DOSBox window and select Keyboard Help... If you are running vDosWP full-screen, this list is not visible, so make a note of the following:

Frequently-asked questions:

Q. I rely on an old DOS program called CheesMkr which I use for making cheese. Could you please test this program with the vDosWP system and tell me if it works?
    A. Is anything stopping you from taking the radical step of trying it yourself?

Q. I’m a lot smarter than most people who visit your site, and I have a lot of experience with computers, so I was able to figure out that your instructions imply that I should perform certain steps that you never explicitly mention, and they imply that I should make changes to the instructions that you never explicitly call for. Anyway, I cleverly performed those steps and made the changes that you clearly implied but never explicitly stated, and now my vDosWP setup doesn’t work at all. Why did you do this to me? Why did you imply that I should do those things that caused so many problems? How dare you imply such dangerous things?
    A. You, and you alone, caused the problems, because you insisted on performing steps and making changes that I never told you to perform. My instructions don’t imply anything. They tell you exactly what you need to do - no more, no less. Next time, please follow the instructions exactly.

Q. I can’t use your system! My old copy of WordPerfect 5.1 had a menu bar at the top of the window, with File, Edit, Search, etc. Your system doesn’t have that menu bar! It’s worthless!
    A. First, take a deep breath. Next, breathe out slowly. Now that you're almost calm again, open WordPerfect, use Shift-F1, 2 - Display, 4 - Menu Options, 8 - Menu Remains Visible, type Yes, then F7. Wasn’t that easy?

Q. Your instructions are all wrong! Everything that you said I should type into text files and configuration screens is wrong! Nothing works! Your system is worthless and this page is a total waste of time! I want my money back!
    A. Please check your typing and make sure that you typed exactly what this page tells you type. Also, you haven’t sent me any money yet, although I hope you will feel free to do so here.


How to use the vDosWP system

As described above, when vDosWP opens, its default directory, when you press F5, will be Drive D:\  but this is not the same as drive D:\ in your Windows system if such a drive even exists. When WordPerfect creates or saves a file in what it sees as Drive D:\ it actually creates or saves a file on your Windows desktop. See the paragraph below for techniques that let you add or change drive letters to allow WordPerfect to access any directory on your Windows system.

Summary of default drive assignments in vDosWP: As supplied, vDosWP assigns the following drive letters to specific folders in Windows. You may change the assigment of drive D: but do not change the assignments of drives B:, C:, and W:, and do not assign drive Y:

B: = <your userfolder>\vDosWP
C: = <your userfolder>\vDosWP\vDosDisk
D: = your Windows desktop
W: = \Windows\System32
Z: = reserved for internal use by vDosWP

Also, the system reserves Y: for use as the drive letter for files dropped on a vDosWP shortcut icon. You can always see a list of currently assigned drive letters by using Ctrl-F1, Go to DOS, and entering the command USE.

Assign drive letters in vDos toWindows folders:  To assign a drive letter in vDosWP (or change the default assigment of drive D: from your Windows desktop), open the AUTOEXEC.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder. Find the lines that start USE. Notice that the line that starts USE D: uses a special technique to point to your Desktop folder; you can change the assignment of drive D: in vDosWP, or you can add further assignments.

To map other drive letters, follow this example, and remember that it is only an example!

USE H: C:\The Path\To\Some folder or other

This will assign drive H: to whatever Windows folder you choose. Do not use quotation marks for folder names with spaces. Or you can change the USE D: line to make drive D: in vDos be whatever folder you choose. Be prepared to experiment until you get this right. And do not try to map B:, C:, W:, Y:, or Z:, which are reserved for the system.

If the wrong characters appear in European systems: It is possible that some European-language characters will appear incorrectly when this system is used outside North America. If and only if you find that the wrong characters appear on your system, and you are using this system on a Windows computer acquired outside North America, then open the AUTOEXEC.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folders; find the line near the foot that starts with C:WP. Edit that line by adding the startup switch /cp-850 and then restart vDosWP. If this does not solve the problem, then study the section of this page about codepage support.

For the best possible display: As supplied, vDosWP opens in a window with 43 lines and 80 columns. However, the vDosWP window can display any number from 24 to 60 lines and any number from 80 to 160 columns.

Lines and columns: Open the CONFIG.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder inside the vDosWP folder. Find the lines that begin LINS = and COLS = near the top of the file. LINS (note that it is spelled LINS without an “e”) can be any number from 24 to 60. COLS can be any number from 80 to 160.

Window size and position: You may fine-tune the starting position and size of the vDosWP window. Open the CONFIG.TXT file and find the block of lines that begins “The window is by default centered on the desktop.” Below that line, find the line that reads something like rem WINDOW = 65,60:0. Remove the word rem from the start of the line; the first number is the percentage of the screen occupied by the window; the second and third numbers represent the horizontal position (in pixels, from the left) and the vertical position (in pixels, from the top) of the upper-left corner of the window. Adjust these numbers until you find a setting you like.

Display font: vDos includes a built-in TrueType font for displaying text on screen. This font is not used for printing, only for displaying text while you edit in ordinary text mode! The vDosWP system is setup to use an alternate font, the Consolas supplied with all version of Windows since Vista, and all versions of Microsoft Office (so you almost certainly have a legal copy). To use a different font, or the built-in vDos font, edit CONFIG.TXT (in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder inside the vDosWP folder), and change the line that reads FONT = CONSOLA - you can add REM at the start of the line if you want to use the build-in font. Note that the FONT = FONTNAME line uses the filename of the font, not the fontname, so you must use CONSOLA with no “s” at the end.

Alternatively, you might want to use the freeware Nouveau_IBM.TTF font (by Arto Hatanpää) also supplied with this system. This imitates the hardware-based font from your old system. If you use this font (by adding the line FONT = NOUVEAU_IBM in CONFIG.TXT (and removing any other FONT line), you will find that it looks well only at small sizes. Experiment by pressing Win+F11 to reduce the vDosWP window, and then experiment with the WINDOW and LINS settings in CONFIG.TXT until the window starts at the size you prefer.

Remember that this font has absolutely nothing to do with the font that prints from WordPerfect! It only affects the font that displays on screen! You will not change the font on the printed page by changing this setting. If you don’t understand any of this, please ignore this whole paragraph! 

Note: Do not waste your time trying to use Tame to change the way this system looks on screen; Tame has absolutely no effect on vDosWP or any program that runs inside it - it won’t hurt, but it also won’t help, because it does absolutely nothing that affects vDosWP in any way whatever.

How to exchange data with the Windows clipboard: In case you don’t remember these instructions, you can click on the system menu of the vDosWP window (the “C:” icon at the upper left of the window) for details.

To paste the contents of the Windows clipboard into WPDOS at the current cursor location, press Win-Ctrl-V. Alternatively, you can can also run VPASTE macro supplied with the system (added on 22 May 2014), which will produce slightly different results. (Win-Ctrl-V uses Windows functions to translate the data from the clipboard in DOS format; the macro uses WordPerfect's file conversion functions.)

To copy from WPDOS to the Windows clipboard, either (a) hold down Win and Ctrl, then click and drag the mouse to start drawing a rectangle for copying text; when you release the mouse button, the contents of the rectangle are copied to the Windows clipboard or (b) select a block and run the VCOPY macro (supplied with the system) to copy that text to the Windows clipboard.

To restore non-working function keys, read the advice on the relevant page for your Windows version, for example the pages for Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Use the mouse in WPDOS 6.x: This is probably not reliable or usable, but you can experiment with it. Edit CONFIG.TXT (as described elsewhere on this page), and add a line that reads MOUSE = ON and save the file, then restart vDosWP. In WPDOS, use Shift-F1, Mouse, and select Mouse Driver (Absolute/Pen); or you might want to experiment with Mouse Driver (Absolute/Pen 2). The results will probably be better in graphic or page mode than in text mode.

Use the mouse in WPDOS 5.1: This is probably not reliable or usable, but you can experiment with it. Edit CONFIG.TXT (as described elsewhere on this page), and add a line that reads MOUSE = ON and save the file, then restart vDosWP. In WPDOS, use Shift-F1, Mouse, and select Mouse Driver (MOUSE.COM). But don't expect this to work correctly in the current version of vDosWP.


Printing from vDosWP

To print from vDosWP, you absolutely, positively must already have installed a printer in Windows! Before you begin, try to print from a Windows application, such as this web browser. If you cannot print from a Windows application, you will not be able to print from vDosWP! (Please do not ask if I can make an exception to this rule for your benefit; it is physically impossible to do so.) After you have set up a printer under Windows, then launch vDosWP and start printing as you did in WPDOS.

By default this system uses a PCL printer driver (the kind of driver traditionally used to print to LaserJet printers), but it prints to your default Windows printer, whether or not that printer is a PCL printer. Simply press Shift-F7, then Full or Print (depending on your WPDOS version), and, after a few moments, your document will print on your default Windows printer. Don’t change anything in the Shift-F7 menu! Don’t choose a different driver! Don’t choose a different port! Just print it.

Remember: Do not try to select your actual printer in the WPDOS print menu! Just leave the system exactly as you found it! I really mean it! Make sure you understand this! Look into your heart! If you find an uncontrollable impulse to change the name of the printer or use a different printer driver, then stop now, and do not try to use this system! (I will show you below how to use a different printer driver if you absolutely need to do so, but wait until you have read my instructions and are in a mood to follow them before you change anything in the printing system.)

Technical note: Behind the scenes, when you print to LPT1 (the default setting) vDosWP creates a PDF file and relies on a Windows application to print that PDF file to your printer. I describe other printing methods below, including two that print directly to a PCL- or PostScript-capable printer.

Other ways to print from vDos: The easiest way to control printing from vDosWP is to change the Port settings in the Print/ Select/Edit menu. These settings are the easiest ones to use:

A note on the PDFMAKER macro: Instead of changing the printer driver to print to LPT3 or LPT4, as described above, you can run the PDFMAKER macro supplied with this system. It will set the ports correctly (and reset them when finished), and will create a PDF file in the same folder as the original document with the name of the current document and a PDF extension (if the current document already has a name). If the current document does not have a name, a PDF will be written to the Windows desktop, with an arbitrary name based on the current date and time. When using this macro, don’t be clever, don’t be ingenious! Don’t change any settings that you think you are required to change before or after running the macro - which is what Clueless Visitor No. 131 tried to do, with predictably bad results. Just run the macro! Remember: You absolutely should not change any settings before or after running the macro. Just run it!

To install soft fonts into WPDOS 6.x: Install soft fonts into WPDOS 6.x exactly as you do in any WPDOS 6.x system. Before installing fonts from inside WPDOS, copy your TrueType soft font files to vDosWP\vDosDisk\TTF (you may need to create the TTF folder) and your PostScript Type 1 soft font files to vDosWP\vDosDisk\PSFONTS. You may of course use any other directories you like, but you must create those directories on the vDosDisk folder and specify their location correctly in Shift-F1/Location of Files. Remember that vDosWP\vDosDisk\PSFONTS must be listed in the Location of Files menu in WPDOS as C:\PSFONTS.


Use your existing PCL or PostScript printer driver

If you customized a printer driver in your existing WPDOS system (perhaps by creating paper definitions), you can almost certainly use that driver in the vDosWP system if your printer is a PCL or PostScript-capable printer. Simply copy the existing .PRS (and, preferably, the .ALL file from which it was created) into the Printer Files directory in vDosWP (by default, C:\WP51 or C:\WPC62DOS, depending on your WP version). Then, in WP5.1, use Shift-F7, Select Printer, Additional Printers, List Printer (PRS) Files, and select the .PRS file that you want to use, or in WPDOS 6.x, Shift-F7, Select, List *.PRS, and select the .PRS file that you copied. Experiment with setting the printer port to LPT1 or LPT2 or other options described above.


Use a Postscript-based printing method instead of the default PCL-based method

To use PostScript-based printing (if you are accustomed to using a PostScript printer with WPDOS), do the following:

In vDosWP51, either use your existing PostScript driver (see the section immediately above) or await revised instructions here.

In vDosWP62, simply use Shift-F7, Select, and switch to the supplied PostScript printer driver.

Printing methods for PostScript, with the printer port set in WPDOS for LPT1 through LPT5, are exactly the same as they are for the default PCL-based system.


Graphics, color, and other visual settings

Graphics: vDosWP supports VGA graphics (640x480) only. If the window is too small or too large when you use Print Preview or any other graphics, close vDosWP, and use a text editor like Notepad.exe to edit the CONFIG.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder. Find the line that reads SCALE = 2 . Change the number to 1 to reduce the size of the image or to 3 or more to increase it. Note that this scaling feature merely expands the 640x480 window in a rather ugly way; it does not change the resolution of the image itself.

Screen colors: You may modify the default screen colors by changing a setting in CONFIG.TXT. For example, if you want to use the same colors used by Tame with WPDOS under Windows XP, close vDosWP, and, using a text editor like Notepad.exe, edit the CONFIG.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder. At the bottom of the file, after the line that begins rem colors and insert the following line (with no line breaks):

colors = #000000 #000080 #008000 #008080 #800000 #800080 #808000 #c0c0c0 #808080 #3300ff #33ff00 #00ffff #ff0000 #ff00ff #ffff00 #ffffff

Underline, italic and other text settings: vDosWP displays underlined and italicized text when your CONFIG.TXT file includes the line WP = 5 or WP = 6 (use 5 if you have 5.1, 6 if you have 6.x). If you do not want underlined and italicized text, add a minus sign before the number, like this: WP = -5 or WP = -6. Underlined and italicized text work correctly only if you use the default color settings in WPDOS itself (the settings accessible under Shift-F1, Display), and not a custom color scheme; however, you may modify the vDosWP color settings in CONFIG.TXT as described above. There is one exception: in the display settings for WPDOS 5.1, the Shadow attribute must be set to A H instead of the WP default setting B H ; this setting has been made for you in the vDosWP system, but, if you prefer the the original WPDOS 5.1 color settings, you may restore them by running the RESETCLR macro supplied with this system. (Remember that this applies to WPDOS 5.1 only.)

Other customizable settings: For many other customizable settings in the vDosWP system, see the CONFIG.TXT and AUTOEXEC.TXT files in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folders inside the vDosWP folder. Use these settings at your own risk, and be prepared to change them back if you don’t like the results.


 View and print the euro symbol

In the printer drivers supplied with vDosWP, the euro symbol is mapped to WP character 4,72 (as it is in WordPerfect for Windows). However, if you want the euro to be visible on the WordPerfect text screen, you must change the WPDOS “codepage” startup setting, and you should use a different setting in Europe and in North America. In both cases, open the AUTOEXEC.TXT file in the 51Config, 61Config, or 62Config folder inside the vDosWP folder, then find the line near the foot that starts with C:WP and edit it as follows:

Then restart vDosWP. In print preview and other graphics modes, when you use the euro, the correct symbol should display in WPDOS 6.x (because this system uses a modified graphic font) but under WPDOS 5.1, and in all menus in WPDOS 6.x, you will probably see a different character (probably circle-u). The euro symbol will print correctly if you use the supplied printer drivers. 

See also the setting on codepage support, below.


Codepage and other national language settings

This section is only for advanced users who understand what it is all about. The special build of vDos used makes in the vDosWP system includes an option for setting the DOS codepage under which WPDOS runs. You can find it in the CONFIG.TXT with an explanation of how to set it. You may want to experiment with different settings to see how they interact with your version of WPDOS. By default the system uses codepage 437 (North American English), but, depending on your Windows settings, it may use codepage 850 in Europe with any change in the default CONFIG.TXT setting. In experimenting, you may want to try codepage 850 or 858 or any other standard codepage. (Codepage 858 is available only in Windows Vista,7, or 8, not in Windows XP.)

You may use the ASCII application in C:\UTIL to see the effect of different codepage settings. (This application was added 20 August 2014.)

See also the section on euro support elsewhere on this page; you will need to use one of the settings described in the AUTOEXEC.TXT file to assign the euro symbol to WP character 4,72.

For further information on euro and other national-language support, see another page on this site.


WordPerfect Editor, Office, and Shell

The vDosWP installer includes options to install WordPerfect Office 3.1 (including the WordPerfect Editor, Shell 3.1, NoteBook, and other utility programs), or the WordPerfect Editor alone, or Shell 4.0c and the Editor. If you choose to install the Shell, you will need to set up its menu by yourself.

The three options in the installer are these. Take careful note of the corresponding configuration folders.

You may use the LINS and COLS settings in CONFIG.TXT in the specified configuration files folder to set the window size for the program launched by the corresponding shortcut.

Shell 3.1 will always display a menu with 25 lines, even in a larger window, but programs launched from Shell 3.1 (such as the Editor, Notebook, or WordPerfect) will open in the  window size that you specify in CONFIG.TXT.

If the vDosWP installer created a desktop shortcut for the Editor, you can drop a file with a long file names on the shortcut and open them in the Editor (they will be opened with their 8.3 DOS short name), if you have already enabled this feature with the Enable Dropped Long Filenames for vDosWP utility described above. Note that the opened file will retain its long file in Windows while it is being edited in the Editor; do not delete or rename the file in Windows while it is open in the Editor.

If the Shell does not automatically find your programs in the vDosDisk folder or any other Windows folder to which you assign a drive letter in vDosWP, then you will need to enter the paths yourself. The absolutely crucial thing to remember is that when setting up the Shell you need to use the paths that are understood by vDosWP, not the actual Windows paths. So, in order to set up WordPerfect 5.1 in the shell, you need to enter the Program Name as c:\wp51\wp.exe (and not as C:\users\yourUserName\vDosWP\vDosDisk\wp51\wp.exe).

You absolutely must understand that vDosWP uses its own directory structrure which is not the same as the Windows directory structure. Please study the sections above about default drive assignments and about adding additional drive letters until you fully understand the way the vDos drive letters correspond to Windows folder names.

Note: In order to use Shell (.SHM) macros with Shell 4.0, the MC.EXE utility must be running in the background. Start Shell 4.0 with a command like this: mc shell /tsr 


 Abbreviation expander software for medical transcriptions and court reporters

If you need to use an abbreviation expander such as PRD+ or Smartype with WPDOS 5.1, first set up the vDosWP system so that WPDOS 5.1 works correctly. Be certain that you have a copy of all the files in the abbreviation expander setup that you formerly used under Windows XP or DOS, as described on this site’s medical transcriptionist page, complete with a batch file that launches your expander software and WPDOS, again as described on that page. (Do not save these files by burning them to a CD or DVD! They will not work correctly! Use a USB drive to copy the files, or e-mail them to yourself. Do not burn them to a CD or DVD!)

In Windows, use Explorer to navigate to the folder vDosWP\vDosDisk and create a folder with the same name as the folder that contained your abbreviation expander software on your old system (typically PPLUS2 or ST or some similar name). Copy all the files from your old expander setup into that folder.

The next step is very important. Go to the vDosWP folder (typically inside your user folder) and double-click PlainDOS.cmd. This command will open a 25-line version of vDos at the vDos C:\ prompt. At the prompt; enter CD PPLUS2 or CD ST or whatever CD (Change Directory) command takes you into your expander directory; then enter the name of the batch file that you created that starts your expander and then starts WP (the batch file may be named something like PRDWP.BAT or STWP.BAT). You should be able to use your expander as you normally do.


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