HABit WordStar Converter

The HABit WordStar Converter WSCONV runs in Windows rather than DOS, so may be an easier alternative for non-DOS users who need access to old WordStar files. This is the 32-bit version of the program:

The program gives options for replacing soft-spaces, etc., with hard-spaces to keep the layout with a fixed-pitch font, and for converting WordStar extended characters to the Windows equivalent. Full details for installation and use are included in the downloads.

This version of the converter (updated March 2005) has support for most DOS WordStar versions including WordStar 2000. Output can be in plain text or HTML, the HTML output preserving character attributes such as boldface, etc. In addition to the two output formats, there are two conversion options:

The keep layout option will try to preserve formatting (see the table below). This option is only applicable to plain text output, not HTML.

The Convert Extended Characters (ECS) option will convert the WordStar for DOS IBM extended character set to the Windows ANSI character set based on Latin-1 coding. Where there isn't a matching character in the normal Windows fonts the nearest equivalent will be used. HTML conversions use special HTML characters to display characters in the Extended ASCII range

Footnotes, are changed to end notes.

There is also a batch conversion option to convert all files with the same file extension in a directory.

The conversions are summarised in the tables below. Point at the symbols for more details on a specific feature.

From WordStar DOS to Plain Text
Feature:	3.31	4.0	5.5	6.0	7.0	2K	Notes
Soft Returns							} Keep } layout } option
Blank lines
Multiple spaces
Text attributes							Not applicable
Tabs
Centering
Footnotes							As end notes
Extended characters							ECS option
From WordStar DOS to HTML
Feature:	3.31	4.0	5.5	6.0	7.0	2K	Notes
Soft Returns							Ignored
Blank lines
Multiple spaces
Text attributes
Tabs							As spaces
Centering
Footnotes							As end notes
Extended characters							ECS option
Key		Yes		No		?		N/A

HABit WordStar Converter

The HABit WordStar Converter WSCONV runs in Windows rather than DOS, so may be an easier alternative for non-DOS users who need access to old WordStar files. The converter is available in two versions as detailed below:

Windows 3
The 16-bit (Windows 3.x) version is designed for WordStar 4 files, but will also cope with earlier WordStar versions.

The program gives options for replacing soft-spaces, etc., with hard-spaces to keep the layout with a fixed-pitch font, and for converting WordStar extended characters to the Windows equivalent. Full details for installation and use are included in the downloads.

If you use the Windows 3 version of the converter to convert files from WordStar versions later than version 4, the file preview may not display the file contents. If the document is simple, and doesn't use features introduced after WordStar 4, such as paragraph styles, you may just be left with some formatting and other code in the converted result, otherwise you could be left with an unusable result.