Site map | Frequently-asked questions | Other FAQs | Problems that I cannot solve | How to print to a file | Home page
Q. I bought a new Windows 10 (or
Windows 8 or 7) computer and WPDOS won't run at all. What can I do?
A. Go to this page and find the solution. Be prepared to read the page very
carefully! (And look at another page for an
alternate solution.)
Q. Where can I find a WPDOS 5.1 printer driver for my new
printer?
A. See the WPDOS 5.1 printer driver page, and
read the frequently-asked questions near the top of the page.
Q. Where can I find a WPDOS 6.0, 6.1, or 6.2 printer driver for my new
printer?
A. See the WPDOS 6.x printer driver page, and
read the frequently-asked questions near the top of the page.
Q. I can't get WPDOS to work correctly under 32-bit Windows 7.
Can you help?
A. See this site's Windows
7 page, and be prepared to spend an hour or more in studying its
recommendations.
Q. I can't get WPDOS to work correctly under 32-bit Windows
10.
Can you help?
A. See this site's Windows
10 page, and be prepared to spend an hour or more in studying its
recommendations.
Q. I can't get WPDOS to run at all under my 64-bit version
of Windows.
Can you help?
A. See this page for
the best solution. You might also look at another page
for an alternative solution.
Q. I have a problem running WPDOS that this page
doesn't help me to solve.
A.
Please see the troubleshooting guide
on another page.
Q. How do I send you feedback about this site?
A. By visiting the
feedback page.
Q. Why is your site so #*&!#@$ hard to use? Why
don't you just give me a big blue button that says "Download," and not those
endless pages of instructions, with the download link buried inside the tenth
paragraph?
A. The retrograde design is
intentional. Because the tools and techniques on this site involve ancient
MS-DOS software, or other archaic software, they are complicated to set up -
although I hope they are effortless to use after they have been set up.
People who are too impatient to read instructions will never be able to set up
these tools and techniques, and they always waste hours of other
people's time by demanding help after they get things wrong. If they're horrified
by the length of the instructions, they'll probably go to
some other site instead. (Based
on a real question by a real visitor who, fortunately, took one look at this
site and went somewhere else.)
Q. Your pages about printer drivers explain that some new printers
print smoothly from WordPerfect with one of your printer drivers, but that other
printers can only print from WordPerfect if I do some
fancy setup that requires more steps than I can even count. Can't you just
send me a driver that will let me print without reading and doing all that stuff?
A. No. If you want to avoid the complicated, fancy setup, take your
printer back to the shop and buy a printer that works with one of my drivers.
(But keep in mind that if you have Windows 7, 8,
or 10, you can use this site's
automated installation which performs that complicated,
fancy setup for you.)
Q. I am a medical transcriptionist (or court reporter) and I
need help setting up my abbreviation-expander to use with WPDOS under
Windows.
A. Please see the medical transcriptionists'
survival guide on this site. I have written that page with the help of many
other medical transcriptionists and court reporters, and I hope it will provide
the answers that you need. Please feel free to write to me again if you find any
errors or omissions on that page, or if you need any further assistance setting
up WordPerfect for DOS for use by a medical transcriptionist or court reporter.
I am happy to provide support to medical transcriptionists or court reporters
who want to continue using WordPerfect for DOS. (I am completely serious about
this.)
Q. I have an old version of WordPerfect. Is there an
updater that will give me a new version? Even better, could you simply
send me a copy of WordPerfect for DOS, either by e-mail, or on a CD?
A. To obtain a copy of WordPerfect with a newer version
number than the one you already have, you must buy a copy of the newer version.
No
updater programs exist for updating 5.0 to 5.1 or 5.1+ or for updating 6.0 to 6.1 or
6.1 to 6.2. In other
words, if you have a copy of 5.0 or 5.1,and you want 5.1 or 5.1+, you
must buy a copy of 5.1 or 5.1+. If you have a copy of 6.0, and you want
6.1 or 6.2, you must buy a copy of 6.1 or 6.2. See
this link for further information on obtaining WordPerfect for DOS.
Q. What is your opinion of the WordPerfect 5.1 "classic mode"
included in recent versions of WordPerfect for Windows?
A. I think it is pointless and worthless, because it uses the
WPDOS keystrokes inconsistently; after you press a function key (or Alt-, Ctrl-,
or Shift-function key), the program does not open a WPDOS-style menu, but
instead opens the standard WordPerfect for Windows
dialog box that performs the function that you want to perform (footnote, font, format,
etc.). Other people seem to like it. If you want to know
more about it, download the WordPerfect for Windows Trial Edition from the
downloads page on Corel's web
site and try it yourself.
Q. I have a truly great idea about a way to run
WordPerfect on my smartphone (or: on my cable TV, iPod, PlayStation,
iPad, microwave
oven, or other non-Windows
hardware or software). I know my idea is wonderful, but I won't test it myself
because I'm a "big-picture" kind of guy, and I don't want to waste my
valuable time working out all the details. Your time obviously isn't worth as
much as mine, so will you please figure out how to put my idea into practice,
test it extensively, and then post all the details on your site?
A. No.
Q. In the
WPDOS forum at wpuniverse.com you posted a link to some instructions on
this site. You said that those instructions would solve the problem that I
have been having on my new computer with WordPerfect. Without even trying
those instructions, I just know they won't work. Give me different
advice instead, and make sure to send it to me as soon as possible.
A. If you already know that my advice will not work, before you have
even tried it, then you clearly know more about WordPerfect than I do, and I can
do nothing more to help.
Q. In the
WPDOS forum at wpuniverse.com you
posted a link to some instructions on this site. Your instructions are clear,
safe, complete, and so idiot-proof that even I will be able to follow them. But
I want people to pay a lot of attention to me, so could you please write to me and tell me whether you really think I should follow those
instructions? And, then, after you tell me that you really think I
should follow those instructions, I'll write to you again to ask whether you
really, really, think I should follow those instructions. Thank you, and
have a nice day.
A. Please follow the
instructions.
Q. In the
WPDOS forum at wpuniverse.com you offered a solution to a problem that I
have been having with WordPerfect, but I simply don't like your solution. It involves more
steps than I want to take and requires more time than I want to spend.
Please give me a simpler solution instead.
A. The solution that I offered is the
only way to solve
the problem without causing other problems. If you don't want to solve the problem,
or if you prefer to create new problems in addition to the one you are
asking about,
then don't use my solution.
Q. In the
WPDOS forum at wpuniverse.com you
posted a link to one specific section of one of the pages on this site. As you
intended, my browser opened the page with the heading of that specific
section at the very top of my browser window, and I was instantly able to
find the answer to my question. However, I am deeply irritated, unhappy, and
annoyed, because the page you linked to is a very long page, and
other parts of it are cluttered with details that are not relevant to my
problem! I want you to give me a link to a page that was written only
to answer my specific question, and I'm very annoyed with you for failing to
provide one!
A.
My first response was, "Surely you're joking," but apparently you aren't.
(Someone really did complain about this. Seriously.)
Q. Your instructions are all
wrong! Your software is incompatible with my system! You're careless and
incompetent! You've wasted hours of my time! Please sort out all the problems I
am having with your system. This is all your fault! - [An hour later.]
Uh, wait: I just realized that I mistyped a command. But please tell me how to
solve the problems I am still having, because those problems are clearly your
fault. - [Another
hour later.] Um, wait again: I seem to have misread one of your instructions.
But please tell me how to solve the problem I still have, because it is clearly
your fault. - [Yet
another hour later.] Er, yes, wait again: I skipped over something that you
said was essential. Everything is working perfectly now. Never mind!
A. Thank you for writing.
Q. I'm a lot smarter than most people who visit your site, so I
was able to figure out that your instructions imply that I should
perform certain steps that you never explicitly mention. Anyway, I
performed those steps that you clearly implied but never explicitly
stated, and now my WordPerfect setup won't work at all. This is all your
fault! Why did you imply that I should do those things that caused so
much damage? How dare you imply such dangerous things?
A.
You, and you alone, caused the damage, because you insisted on performing steps
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. Some of your instructions are simple, straightforward,
and really, um, boring. They're, like, linear. Those linear kinds of thing,
like, don't fit my clever, like, holistic personality, so I did
something complicated and, um, like, original instead. Now nothing works. I
can't, you know, like, remember exactly which clever things I did, but I'm sure you can,
like, help
me sort it all out.
A. Please go back and follow the instructions, no matter how
boring and linear they may appear.
Q. I'm so charming and quirky and lovable that all my friends
and acquaintances just love to spend hours doing favors for me! All I need to do
is ask, and they drop everything so they can help! When can you start
giving me advice on how to buy a new computer and install WordPerfect on it?
A. Whenever you like! You sound like a splendidly
appealing person! All you need to do is pay my extremely high fee for
private consulting work! As soon as I receive my enormous retainer from you,
plus my enormous hourly fee (paid in advance) for the first few hours of work,
I will be delighted to start helping you! I don't charge any more than a high-powered
corporate lawyer would charge you for equally valuable legal advice!
Q. [These are extracts from an authentic e-mail message,
received from Ann P. on 26 November 2002.] Aren't you a dear for having
this site, but you are faced with a rank amateur ... We are trying to transfer hundreds of files into
[a new] computer. Is there a way to do this? And can you tell
me how in ... normal English?
A. Aren't you a dear for asking me to
provide a private consultation for no charge?
Q. [This is an authentic e-mail message, received from
Simon M. on 1 November 2005,
reproduced exactly as received.] Can you please make it easier to navigate trough your
sitemap. See it took me at LEAST 2 hours to find out that you were talking about
an program word perfect (wich i'm now downloading). can you please send the
program and a how to text to this e-mail. please. my best regards.
A. No.
Many additional FAQs may found elsewhere on this site. For example:
Some problems with WordPerfect for DOS seem to have either (1) no known solution or (2) no solution that I know about, although someone else may have an answer. These problems include:
Please do not ask me for help with these problems. You may perhaps be able to find help with such problems on the WPDOS forum at WP Universe (free registration required before posting).
If I ask you to "print to a file" and send me the "printfile," here is how to do it.
In WPDOS 5.1, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Port/Other and enter a filename (with the full path, as in c:\temp\output.prn or whatever filename you want). (Help! What does a "full path" mean?) Then "print" as you normally do, and the output will be sent to the filename that you specified; then use the same series of menus to change the Port setting back to what it was originally (probably LPT1). Attach the resulting file to your e-mail message.
In WPDOS 6.x, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Port/Filename and enter a filename (with the full path, as in c:\temp\output.prn or whatever filename you want). (Help! What does a "full path" mean?) Then "print" as you normally do, and the output will be sent to the filename that you specified; then use the same series of menus to change the Port setting back to what it was originally (probably LPT1). Attach the resulting file to your e-mail message.
To print to a file in Windows applications, in the Print dialog, add a checkmark to the "Print to file" box; select a filename and a location where you can find the file after it is created. Attach the file to your e-mail message.