WordStar 7.0 Archive

WordStar is probably responsible for me sitting here today at a computer typing a blog entry. Sometime in late 1983, I visited friend and fanzine publisher (at the time, now a full-time writer and editor) Robert Runte. He had an Obsorne PC with WordStar. The computer was clunky and the screen microscopic, but I took one look at WordStar and that was it; I had to have it. Later that year, I bought an IBM PC with WordStar. Eventually I moved on to WordStar 2000 (which was a mistake on both the company's part for making it and mine for buying it) and then Microsoft Word for DOS and later Word for Windows. 

But WordStar has a place in my heart as it led directly to my career as a technical writer. 

WordStar hasn't been published or updated in more than 30 years, but still has a small cadre of devoted users, among them several successful writers, including George R. R. Martin and Robert J. Sawyer. Now Sawyer has taken it upon himself to assemble and publish an archive site for WordStar 7.0, collecting the program, along with documentation, and useful tools in one place. 

Says Sawyer:

I wanted there to be a monument to this, the finest word-processing program ever created. As Anne Rice said, “WordStar was magnificent. I loved it. It was logical, beautiful, perfect. Compared to it, Microsoft Word is pure madness.”

And, I suppose I’m thinking a bit about my legacy, too. Once I’m gone, my literary estate will need to deal with my electronic manuscripts, and my executor should be able to work with them on her own computer rather than just mine. Also, there are countless other writers who are no longer with us who wrote with WordStar, including Arthur C. Clarke; I hope this archive I’ve created will be of use to scholars.

Anyone can have WordStar for DOS 7.0 up and running on a Windows computer in a matter of minutes using this archive; with just a little bit more work, WordStar for DOS 7.0 also runs just fine under Linux and Mac OS.

The Register describes the history of WordStar in more detail in its article about Sawyer and the archive.

WordStar has a long and exceptionally involved history, as the Wordstar.org fan site used to chronicle. It started out on CP/M, was ported to DOS, multiple incompatible programs of the same name launched, and later still ported to Windows. The last ever release was part of an obscure office suite. Sawyer is correct: the final DOS version really is the true classic.

MicroPro, the company behind WordStar, was repeatedly acquired. At one point it was part of SoftKey, which was acquired and became the Learning Company, which was bought by Mattel in what BusinessWeek called "the worst acquisition of all time." As a result, the software business was spun off again and bought by Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep.

Kudos to Robert for taking the time to help preserve a piece of our computing history.