Word Perfect 5.1 for Dos

klem kedidelhopper · Jun 30, 2011

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under
Win 98's Dos prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My
other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine. So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any
assistance. Lenny

John Tserkezis · Jun 30, 2011

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary.

Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under Win 98's Dos prompt?
That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer?

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

My other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine.

So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all?

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.
--
Say it with flowers - Give her a triffid.

William Sommerwerck · Jun 30, 2011

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.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson · Jun 30, 2011

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under
Win 98's Dos prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer?

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.

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

Rich Webb · Jun 30, 2011

On Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:35:35 +1000, John Tserkezis
<jt@techniciansyndrome.org.invalid> wrote:

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary.

Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under Win 98's Dos prompt?
That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer?

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

My other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine.

So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all?

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)

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.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

Jeffrey Angus · Jun 30, 2011

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

Jeff Liebermann · Jun 30, 2011

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:33:40 -0700 (PDT), klem kedidelhopper
<captainvideo462009@gmail.com> wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under
Win 98's Dos prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My
other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine. So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any
assistance. Lenny

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"
<http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/>

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:
<http://www.restorer2000.com>
for a recovery tool. $30/$50/$70 depending on features.

WP is owned by Corel and is not freeware.

--
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

William Sommerwerck · Jun 30, 2011

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.

Wond · Jun 30, 2011

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:33:40 -0700, klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's primary
hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second computer's
primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under Win 98's Dos
prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My other problem
is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and which is also
presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and so I can't
install this on my new machine. So my other question is : does anyone
know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its age now or if
it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any assistance. Lenny

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

Sjouke Burry · Jul 1, 2011

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under
Win 98's Dos prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My
other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine. So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any
assistance. Lenny
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(<32gb) on it with fdisk first,
and delare it to be bootable.

Man-wai Chang · Jul 1, 2011

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing

<http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ/Writer/DocumentManagement/Does_OpenOffice.org_support_WordPerfect_file_formats%3F>

<http://www.libreofficeaustralia.org/ja/community/blog/planet/20101118/back-wordperfect-libwpd-090>

--
@~@ 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
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http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

Evan Platt · Jul 1, 2011

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:33:40 -0700 (PDT), klem kedidelhopper
<captainvideo462009@gmail.com> wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's
primary hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second
computer's primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under
Win 98's Dos prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My
other problem is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and
which is also presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and
so I can't install this on my new machine. So my other question is :
does anyone know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its
age now or if it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any
assistance. Lenny

Have a read at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/
--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious and .invalid from my e-mail address.

Man-wai Chang · Jul 1, 2011

Have a read at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/

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

--
@~@ 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
^ ^ 22:26:01 up 1 day 6:49 0 users load average: 1.00 1.03 1.05
ä¸ĺč˛¸! ä¸čŠé¨! ä¸ć´äş¤! ä¸ćäş¤! ä¸ćĺŤ! ä¸čŞćŽş! čŤčćŽçść´ (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

Jeff Liebermann · Jul 1, 2011

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:29:30 +0800, Man-wai Chang
<toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:

Have a read at http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/

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

That has already been done:
<http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/>

See:
<http://www.archive.org>
for how it works.

--
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

JeffM · Jul 1, 2011

klem kedidelhopper wrote:

hard drive is failing.

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.
http://google.com/search?q=antiX+64MB+128MB
http://google.com/search?q=SliTaz
http://google.com/search?q=PuppyLinux+MultiUser+iso
(I **DON'T** recommend *any other* version of Puppy.)

I have another computer with Win 98 on it

What a waste of good hardware.

See "Linux", above.
I was hoping *this* would work out, but it appears not.
http://google.com/search?q=site:WineHQ.org+%22.WordPerfect-5.1%22

WP5.1 for Dos will run under Win 98's Dos prompt?

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 http://google.com/search?tbs=dfn:1&q=FOSS
boot manager http://google.com/search?q=GRUB2
will give you a dual-boot.

This is also far superior
to the crap OSes that M$ produced last century.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wcV7-VzPYnkJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeDOS+Long.filename.support+FAT32+USB+last+apply+with-*-effort&strip=1#File_systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeDOS#File_systems

Meat Plow · Jul 2, 2011

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:33:40 -0700, klem kedidelhopper wrote:

I presently have a computer that has a hard drive with Dos 6.2 as an
operating system. I use Word Perfect 5.1 for all my customer billing
files. This hard drive is failing. I have another computer with Win 98
on it that is running fine. Before the drive with Dos on it fails
completely I would like to install it in the second computer as a
primary slave and copy my billing files to the second computer's primary
hard drive. Then I have to re-install WP51 on to the second computer's
primary. Does anyone know if WP5.1 for Dos will run under Win 98's Dos
prompt? That is can I install it on a Win 98 computer? My other problem
is that the copy of WP51 which is on 10 floppies and which is also
presently on my first computer has gotten corrupted and so I can't
install this on my new machine. So my other question is : does anyone
know if WP51 is available as free or shareware due to its age now or if
it is still available at all? Thanks very much for any assistance. Lenny

See if this is relevant to your needs.
http://www.dosbox.com/

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.

--
Live Fast Die Young, Leave A Pretty Corpse

Evan Platt · Jul 2, 2011

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:29:30 +0800, Man-wai Chang
<toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:

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

Why, when http://www.archive.org does this more or less automatically?

--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious and .invalid from my e-mail address.

Man-wai Chang · Jul 3, 2011

Why, when http://www.archive.org does this more or less automatically?

Is the website's data PERMANENT?

--
@~@ 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
^ ^ 15:33:01 up 2 days 23:56 0 users load average: 1.01 1.04 1.05
ä¸ĺč˛¸! ä¸čŠé¨! ä¸ć´äş¤! ä¸ćäş¤! ä¸ćĺŤ! ä¸čŞćŽş! čŤčćŽçść´ (CSSA):
http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_pubsvc/page_socsecu/sub_addressesa

Evan Platt · Jul 3, 2011

On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:37:33 +0800, Man-wai Chang
<toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:

Is the website's data PERMANENT?

Yes.
--
To reply via e-mail, remove The Obvious and .invalid from my e-mail address.

Franc Zabkar · Jul 5, 2011

On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:18:52 -0700, Evan Platt
<evan@theobvious.espphotography.com> put finger to keyboard and
composed:

On Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:37:33 +0800, Man-wai Chang
toylet.toylet@gmail.com> wrote:

Is the website's data PERMANENT?

Yes.

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
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Word Perfect 5.1 for Dos

klem kedidelhopper

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John Tserkezis

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William Sommerwerck

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Geoffrey S. Mendelson

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Rich Webb

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Jeffrey Angus

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Jeff Liebermann

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William Sommerwerck

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Wond

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Sjouke Burry

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Man-wai Chang

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Evan Platt

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Man-wai Chang

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Jeff Liebermann

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JeffM

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Meat Plow

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Evan Platt

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