WSedit - Write&Set Editor 1.00 beta 12, October 2016
Freeware Editor for Windows98-10, OS/2, eCS, Linux and MacOSX which reads Wordstar (DOS) 4-7 and ASCII (ISO and IBM codepage) and writes Wordstar 4 and ASCII format (ISO and IBM codepage). User Interface CUA (Windows Standard) and Wordstar (with Ctrl shortkeys).
Most Wordstar Ctrl commands are supported. The behaviour of WSedit depends on the text file extension. In the settings notebook, you can define different properties dependent on the file extension of the file.
The idea of WSedit is to have a modern graphical 32-bit application with look-and-feel of old "Wordstar for DOS" and "Windows editor" behaviour simultaneously. You can also use WSedit without knowing Wordstars Ctrl commands ("Ctrl" is abbreviated ^) and without knowing about the Wordstar file format: if you don't use the Wordstar file format, WSedit is a powerful text editor for large ASCII files with/without word wrapping. In this case, it will be nevertheless useful for you to take a look at the dot commands for unformatted files and at the Ctrl commands.
The WSedit Freeware program is a part of the full-featured wordprocessing suite Write&Set. Write&Set consists of two programs: one for writing (WSedit) and one for "setting" - means formatting, previewing and printing (WSformat). If you have installed both WSedit and WSformat, you get the look-and-feel of a single program. Write&Set is based on Wordstar dot commands (formatting commands in the text, with a dot at the beginning of a line). You enter a raw text with dot commands and without fixed margin in WSedit (WS file). After you have finished writing, WSformat will compile the raw text to a formatted text (FMT file) with fixed margins which can be viewed again in WSedit. This formatted text can be previewed and printed to all printers which are installed on your operating system. Write&Set supports contents, index, footnotes, bitmaps, hyphenation. In opposite to Winword-like programs, Write&Set won't get problems if text documents get large. For more information, visit http://www.WriteAndSet.com .
If you are searching for an editor with more basic functionality to get a substitute for Windows Notepad or OS/2 System Editor, without wordprocessing functionality and without ability of reading/writing Wordstar files, take a look at "Martins System Editor ME", a "WSedit light". The look-and-feel of ME is closer to Windows Notepad and OS/2 System Editor than WSedit. ME has got print ability, WSedit not. The chapter "General functionality" describes the functionality which is part of both editors.
To convert Write&Set files to hypertext formats, you are encouraged to download Hypermake http://www.hypermake.com . It is a hypertext compiler which compiles Write&Set files, Wordstar 4 files or ASCII files with Write&Set syntax to HTML, Winhelp, MS HTML-Help or IBM Help. Hypermake is Freeware for a text file length up to 20 kB, otherwise Shareware.
To get a short impression how a Write&Set raw text file looks like, you will find the raw text of this documentation in the Write&Set archive file (docusrc\WSedit-e.WS). You can format and print this raw text by using WSformat. I have used Hypermake to generate a Help file from this raw text file. The graphical Hypermake program also contains an editor which is very close to WSedit and is also Wordstar-enabled.
Important note for Wordstar 5-7 users: please note that
WSedit always saves Wordstar files in Wordstar 4.0 Format. Additional Wordstar 5-7
features get lost or, e.g. footnotes, will be converted
to Write&Set format.
subchapters:
Feature list
(no) installation
More about Write&Set
Differences to Wordstar 4
next chapter:
Bars and Menus