SOME WORDSTAR PROBLEMS, SOLUTIONS AND TECHNIQUES

                                  by 

                         P. L. Olympia, Ph.D.
                         Darwin Systems, Inc.
                 SUGI SIG/M RBBS Sysop, (301)963-5249
                               09/01/84


     Recently,  I  had the pleasure of being confronted by a group  of 
Government secretaries at a gripe session.  The secretaries were irate 
because  the  powers-that-be  have taken their beloved  Wang  OIS  and 
replaced them with IBM XT's running WordStar (I have to confess that I 
helped push for WordStar).   Now, there is no denying that WordStar is 
difficult  to learn but people can and do learn it,  and even come  to 
love  it.   Over the years,  I found that the people who had the  most 
trouble in learning WordStar are those who were brought up with a Wang 
word-processor.  There must be something about those endless menus and 
prompts  that cause the brain to atrophy.   Oops,  I'm  editorializing 
again...

     What  follow are some of the complaints and my solutions to them.  
Included  also  are additional WordStar techniques that I  have  found 
useful  over  the  years.   And just to  complete  the  set,  a  quick 
reference guide to WordStar is also included.

NOTE:  In this document, the caret symbol (^) means hold down the CTRL 
key; the <RET> symbol means press the <RETURN> key.



1.  EDITING ONE DOCUMENT WHILE PRINTING ANOTHER

     The   secretaries  complained  that  the  IBM  XT   slowed   down 
considerably  when  a document was being edited and a second  one  was 
being printed.  The most cost-effective solution to this is to install 
a  memory  print  spooler software.   The one I use is  the  excellent 
public domain program called MSPOOL2.

     I   place MSPOOL2.COM in a subdirectory (\pd) where DOS can  find 
it  via  the  PATH  command  and  add  the  following   line  to   the 
AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the root directory:

     MSPOOL2 1 7              (for parallel printer in LPT1)
            -or-
     MODE COM1:1200,N,8,1     (for serial printer attached to COM1) 
     MSPOOL2 1 7 1            (you need both lines)

The  syntax  of  the  MSPOOL2 command may  be  changed  for  "unusual" 
situations. Here is the complete syntax:

     MSPOOL2 x y z

where   x = 1,2,3,4  depending on whether the printer is recognized as
                     LPT1, LPT2, LPT3 or LPT4
        y = the number of 7K chunks of buffer memory. In the above
                     example, you are installing 49K (7x7) of buffer
        z  =  1 or 2  used only if a serial printer  is  attached  to 
                      either COM1 or COM2

     For  programs  that  do not work with MSPOOL2  (e.g.,  VPRINT  or 
DSPOOL),  I can remove MSPOOL2 from memory by just giving the command, 
MSPOOL2 x, and answering D(isable) to the prompt.


2.  PAGE NUMBERS OF DOCUMENTS

     The  secretaries  wanted the document pages  numbered  (beginning 
with page 2) in their standard format which is at the top of the  page 
and surrounded by a dash on either side.

     Here is the way it is done:

  o  Place  the  .OP (Omit Page number) command near the  top  of  the 
     document

  o  Scroll  to  the  top of page 2 (use ^C or  ^QZ),  and  place  the 
     following .HE (heading) command:

        .he                             - # -

     Note  that the - # - should be where you want the page number  to 
     be.  Keep  in  mind that the ".he " takes up four spaces  of  the 
     screen display, but NOT of the printed page.  

REMINDER: 

      You should NOT use the .PN (page number) command because it will 
negate  the  .OP command - you will have the page number  on  top  and 
bottom of the page.  By default, the heading line is printed two lines 
above  the start of text on the page.  You can control the line place-
ment  of  the  heading by using the .HM  (heading  margin),  .MT  (top 
margin),  and .MB (bottom margin) commands.  Remember that the default 
page size of WordStar is 66 lines (8.5 inches) but only 55  lines/page 
are  printed  because 3 lines (1/3 inch) are allocated to  top  margin 
space, and 8 lines (1.3 inches) are allocated to bottom margin space.



3.  MARGINS AND TAB SETTINGS

     Secretaries  complained  that margins and tab  settings  are  not 
"remembered"  by  WordStar  and these have to be reset each  time  the 
document is edited.

     I  offered  to customize WordStar so that it will always come  up 
with  the  margins  and  tab  settings  desired;   unfortunately,  the 
secretaries  said that they work with many different sets  of  margins 
and tab settings.

     The  next best thing is to create a file of many different  RULER 
LINES,  and then read that file (^KR followed by the filename) at  the 
top  of the document that one is currently working on.  Anytime that a 
user wants to change settings,  all she has to do is place the  cursor 
anywhere in the desired ruler line, and give the

                   ^OF     (set margins/tabs from line)

command.   Those  settings  are in effect until one either exits  from 
WordStar or changes the settings, for example, by moving the cursor to 
another (different) ruler line and doing another ^OF.  Because the set 
of  ruler  lines are now part of the document,   it is  easy  to  make 
WordStar "remember" the desired settings by doing a ^OF as soon as the 
document is "opened" for edit.

     You do this to make a ruler line:

  o  Begin  a  line with two dots (..),  then do a ^P^M (or  ^P,  then 
     <RET>).  The  flag character "-" shows at the right edge  of  the 
     line, and the cursor moves to the line below

  o  Now type a ruler line with "-" and "!" (! indicates tab setting), 
     for example:

               ------!-----!------!-----!------!-----------------

     The  first "-" defines the left margin,  and the last one defines 
the right margin. You can use "L" or "R" in place of these two hyphens 
to serve as a graphic reminder of the left and right margins.  Use "#" 
instead of "!" if you want a decimal tab.


4. PAGE/DOCUMENT REFORMING

     Once  margins  and tab settings are  changed,  you  can  reformat 
several  pages or the entire document without WordStar having to  stop 
the  process  at  the end of a paragraph or whenever it  encounters  a 
"hard" carriage return.  Here is how it is done:

  o  Make sure that hyphen-help is off  (^OH toggles it on or off)

  o  Place the cursor where you want reformatting to begin

  o  Do a ^QQ  (Repeat next command)

  o  Do a ^B   (Reform paragraph command)

  o  Watch the fun and press any key to stop reformatting at any point


5.  PAGE SCROLLING

     Secretaries complained that WordStar does not have a "GO TO PAGE" 
command,  making  it cumbersome to move the cursor to a specific page.  
Now,  WordStar is a document-oriented software and not a page-oriented 
one,  but  the  lack of a "go to page" command has never been  one  of 
WordStar's major drawbacks.  Here are some techniques:

     One,  if you know a unique text string in the desired  page,  you 
can  easily  get there with the ^QF (Find string)  command.   You  can 
repeat  this  command indefinitely with the ^L  (repeat  find/replace) 
command.   You  can  also find the string forward or backward or  tell 
WordStar not to distinguish between lower/uppercase.

     Two,  if you keep going back to the same page(s),  you can  embed 
markers at strategic points (^Kn,  n = 0-9), and get there with ^Qn 
n = 1-9).

     Three,  there  really  are better ways of doing page scroll  than 
that provided by the ^QZ (up) or ^QW (down) commands.  Here are two of 
them:

  -  Do a ^QQ^C (forward scroll) or ^QQ^R (backward scroll)

  -  Alternatively,  do a ^QF.  At the "FIND?" prompt, respond with ^N 
     then <RET>.  At the "OPTIONS?" prompt give the number of lines to 
     skip.



                    ADDITIONAL WORDSTAR TECHNIQUES


PROPORTIONAL SPACING

     WordStar  has  an undocumented command that will  allow  properly 
equipped printers to print with proportional spacing.  That command is 
the ^P (enter it as ^PP) command.   To take advantage of this feature, 
you  must  have  a version of WordStar correctly  installed  for  your 
printer,  and your printer must be able to perform microspacing.   The 
procedure is:

  o  Near   or   at  the  top  of  the  document,   place   the   .UJ1 
     (microjustification on) command, and do a ^PP command

  o  Enter/edit your text

  o  Reform your paragraphs (^B, or ^QQ^B with hyphen-help off)

     The  last  step  is necessary because  without  it,  proportional 
spacing will stop at the last line of the paragraph.


FILLING OUT PREPRINTED FORMS

     Use the command ^PC to make WordStar pause during printing so you 
can  move the printhead to the appropriate place where  required  data 
will  be  typed  onto the form.   If you do not have a  printer  which 
allows  you  to manually move the printhead,  you can  design  a  form 
layout similar to the preprinted form and place ^PC at the appropriate 
places.


DOUBLE SPACING WITHOUT MAJOR CHANGES TO THE DOCUMENT

     Often  one  is faced with the task of printing a draft copy of  a 
document (created with single-spacing) in double space.   Rather  than 
make  extensive changes to the document via ^OS,  then ^B (or  ^QQ^B), 
you can leave the document single-spaced and still get a double-spaced 
printed copy.   This requires the MailMerge option. 

      Here is how it is done: 

  o  Place the following dot commands at the top of the document:
          .pf on     (turn on print forming)
          .ls2       (line spacing = 2)

  o  Print the document using the "M" command (rather than the "P"
     command) at the WordStar opening menu.

 
WHERE ARE YOU IN A DOCUMENT?

     If  you ever want to know at which line of the document  you  are 
currently in,  just do a ^OP (Page break display on/off).   The status 
line,  FL=xx, will show you that you are in line xx.  The FC=yy in the 
status  line shows you that you are in the yyth  character.   This  is 
handy  if  you  want  to  find out how many lines  there are   in  the 
document. Just send the cursor to the bottom of the document (^QC) and 
then do a ^OP.   Note that a second ^OP toggles you back to page break 
display  on.   With  a  little  math,  you can  also  figure  out  the 
approximate number of words in the document.



                 QUICK REFERENCE TO WORDSTAR COMMANDS


CURSOR MOVEMENT 
    
                  ^S  Left CHARACTER       ^D  Right CHARACTER
                  ^QS Left LINE            ^QD Right LINE
                  ^A  Left WORD            ^F  Right WORD
                  ^QE To Top of screen     ^QX To Bottom of screen     
                  ^QR Beginning of file    ^QC To End of file
                                
                                 +--------+
                                 |   E    |
                                 |   up   |
                    _____________|________|_____________
                    |   A    |   S    |   D    |   F    |
CURSOR CONTROL      |  left  |  left  | right  | right  |
                    |  word  |  char  | char   | word   |
                    +-----------------------------------+
                                 |   X    |
                                 |  down  |
                                 +--------+
------------------------------------------------------------------------

SCROLL:            ^Z Up one line           ^C Up one screen
                   ^W Down one line         ^R Down one screen
------------------------------------------------------------------------

DELETE:            ^G Char left             ^RUB Char right
                   ^Y Line                  ^T   Word right
                   ^QY to end of line       ^QRUB to begin of line

------------------------------------------------------------------------

OTHER:             ^V insertion togle       ^I  Tab
                   ^U restart command       ^VN Insert (with WW)
                   ^B Reform to para.       ^P  Overprint

                   ^J Menu      ^Q,J,K,O,P prefix menus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAVES:  ^KD  Save      ^KX Save & get CP/M      ^KS Save & re-edit same
                                                    [ in-progress save ]
        ^KQ  Abort     ^KP Print toggle

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

BLOCKS:  ^KB mark block begin            ^KK mark block end
         ^QB cursor to block start       ^QK cursor to block end

                       ^KH Hide/restore marker
       
         ^KV move block                  ^KC recopy block
         ^KY delete block                ^KW write block to file

         ^R  repeat last command         ^KJV help!

                       ^QV Return cursor to block start

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

TEXT MARKERS:
              ^K 0-9 Set/Hide text marker    ^Q 0-9  Cursor to marker

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIND/      ^QF Find    ^QA Replace     ^L Find/Replace next occurence
REPLACE:
             options: <n> the nth occurence
                       G  global replace or find last
                       N  replace without query
                       B  search backward
                       U  ignore case
                       W  whole word only

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADDITIONAL      ^QH Block Write          ^QR Read additional file
  FILES:        ^QJ Delete File          ^QP Print file

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTROL:    ^O  display current status
            ^OC center this line
            ^OL set left margin            ^OR set right margin
            ^OI set tab here               ^ON clear tab here
            
            ^OF set margins & tabs to match current line

 ^V..^P <return> <draw ruler with "-" for blank and "!" for tab> then ^O^F
 to store reusable non-printing ruler.

            ^OS set line spacing
            ^B  reform to end of paragraph
            ^OX margin release
            ^OW word wrap
            ^OJ justify
            ^OT ruler
            ^OP page ends
            ^OD dot commands
            ^PO non-break spaces
            ^P<ret> overprint next line

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"P" Commands: Put a ^Char in the file

            ^PS Underscore start/end
            ^PB Boldface start/end
          
           <space> cancel prefix
           < ret > overprint line follows

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

DOTs        .PL paper length     defaults to 11 inches
            .MT margin top           "        3 lines
            .MB margin bottom        "        8 lines
            .HM heading margin       "        2 lines
            .FM footer margin        "        2 lines
            .PC page # col.          "        1/2 right margin
            .PO page offset          "        8 cols.
            .PA new page
            .CPn conditional page
            .HE {or .HE #} header text
            .FO  "     "   footer text
            .OP omit page numbers
            .PN start with page number
            .IG non-printing comment

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPECIALS:  ^QCOP number of words in the text

           ^QQn  Repeat:  eg. QQZn scroll line at speed n (0-9)
                              QQCn scroll screens

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

                  WORDSTAR HELP COMMANDS


      ^O    Show me the current status

      ^JH   Set level of prompts
      ^JD   show dot commands and print controls
      ^JI   command index
      ^JS   status line
      ^JF   flags info.
      ^JB   paragraph commands
      ^JP   place markers
      ^JM   margins and tabs
      ^JV   moving text

                             - the end -