Obtaining WPDOS | Corel FTP pages | Discussion groups and forums | Online beginners' guides | Other sites and links | Older WPWin versions | WP for the Macintosh and Apple II | A note on Microsoft Word | General-interest DOS sites | Home page
WordPerfect and Corel tools and third-party utilities and tools 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.
WordPerfect for DOS is no longer marketed by Corel. Probably the best way to obtain boxed copies of WordPerfect 5.1+ for DOS and WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS is through eBay (this link searches eBay for the words "WordPerfect" and "DOS"). When buying on eBay, read the product descriptions very carefully before bidding or buying; some items are merely books about WordPerfect, not copies of the program itself. You do need a license number when installing WordPerfect for DOS; when prompted, enter any nine-digit number that comes to mind.
If you want to obtain a licence number when buying on eBay, be certain to ask the seller if the box includes a certificiate with a license number. Full commercial boxes should always contain a license number. Boxes labeled "Trade-up" (meaning a competitive upgrade from a different product) probably will contain a license number. Boxes labeled "Upgrade" probably will not contain a license number (unless also labeled "Trade-up"). "Academic" copies sometimes contain a license number but sometimes do not. Copies sold on "bare" CD discs, without a box, almost never include a license number.
Note: Packages labeled "upgrade" contained the same disks and manuals included in full packages, but were priced differently. "Upgrade" packages may be installed in the same way that full packages are installed, and do not require any earlier version to be on your hard disk.
Some on-line vendors sell used and obsolete software. Among the vendors that sometimes offer WordPerfect for DOS are ComputerPartsGalore.com and EMS Professional Software (note that many of the items listed at the top of the menu on the EMS site are not actually available for sale).
A few notes on the differences between 5.1+ and earlier 5.1 versions, and between 6.2 and earlier 6.x versions, may be found elsewhere on this site.
For WPDOS 6.x, Corel offers an interface to the FTP site for WPDOS 6.0 and 6.1 downloads. A separate page on Corel's site lists WPDOS 6.x printer drivers.
Diskette copies of WPDOS 6.x did not include all available video graphics or printer drivers; some were available only as downloads or special orders. All except one of these additional drivers are now available on the Corel pages listed above; the exception is the Trident video graphics driver, a copy of which may be downloaded from this site (if nonsense characters appear in your browser when you click on the link, right-click the link and select Save Link As...). Links to other video drivers may be found on this site's graphics mode page and text mode page.
For WPDOS 5.1, Corel offers an interface to the FTP site for WPDOS 5.1 downloads. Links to other video drivers may be found on this site's graphics mode page and text mode page. A separate page lists WPDOS 5.1 printer drivers.
Important note: if you are looking for the WPDOS 5.1 Convert.exe utility, you will not find it on the Corel interface to the FTP site listed in the preceding paragraph; the Conv51.exe file listed there is only a text file about the Convert.exe program, not the program itself. Use this link to download the Convert.exe program.
If you have questions about any versions of WPDOS, you may ask them in any of three reasonably active discussion groups and forums devoted to the program.
The WPDOS forum at WordPerfect Universe is frequented by many knowledgeable users willing to share their expertise; you must sign in before posting messages. The site also has a helpful list of links devoted to WP bonus and legacy applications.
Corel maintains "newsgroups" devoted to questions and answers about various versions of WordPerfect, but they are almost entirely inactive. You may find it possible to use this link to open the group in your Internet news reader, but you will probably need to set up a news reader by hand.
See also the list of other sites and links, below.
A tips-and-tricks site with useful information on running WPDOS (and WP for Windows) may be found at the Microcounsel site.
See also the list of macros and macro tools on this site's tools page.
An extensive Spanish-language WPDOS 5.1 site by Lorenzo Peņa includes links, documents, downloads.
Discussions of WPDOS 5.1 as used by medical transcriptionists may be found on the MT Daily site. Unfortunately, this site, formerly free to anyone, became an expensive paid-admission-only site in September 2002.
Well-informed discussions of WPDOS under OS/2 may be found in the Yahoo discussion group devoted to OS/2 Word Processing.
A miscellaneous collection of WPDOS macros, utilities, and other files may be found on a mirror of the old Simtel.net site.
An excellent, well-maintained archive of DOS utilities may be found on Dev Anand Teelucksingh's Interesting DOS Programs page.
Some notes about compatibility with current Windows versions for older versions of WordPerfect for Windows may be found on a separate page.
Information on WordPerfect for the Macintosh has been moved to a separate page on this site.
WordPerfect Corporation reportedly sold the rights to WordPerfect for the Apple IIe/IIc and WordPerfect for the Apple IIGS to a defunct company called Quality Software in 1990; the final versions are now freely downloadable.
This site has no prejudices for or against any product. If you want to use a DOS word processor that is very different from WPDOS, feel free to download from Microsoft's web site, at no cost, a full copy of Microsoft Word for DOS 5.5 in an International English version. After downloading, copy the Wd55_ben.exe file to the directory in which you want to install Word, and enter the DOS command: Wd55_ben.exe - d (note hyphen space d at the end). You may add the path of a DOS directory after this command if you want to expand into the specified directory. A US English version of the file was formerly available from Microsoft's site, but now seems to be inaccessible. No printer drivers seem to be available with the download, but may be found on many printer manufacturers' websites. Drivers for older printers, such as the HP LaserJet Series III, may of course be used with newer HP-compatible printers.
Web sites with detailed information on DOS, including links to utility and other software, include Doctor DOS's DOS site and the Interesting DOS Programs site. I hope to add further such sites in the future.