Why?
WordPerfect for DOS, in the opinion of many knowledgeable users, is still the greatest program ever written. Some of its features have not been matched even by the latest Windows software, and its interface remains unequaled for efficiency and elegance. Its support for multiple font formats has not been equaled by any other program or operating system, and its support for multiple alphabets, languages, and symbol sets has only been equaled by twenty-first-century versions of Windows, Linux, and the Mac OS.
www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/
www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/Software/wordperfect.php
blog.cmpxchg8b.com/2020/09/finding-console-word-processor.html
www.studymore.org.uk/wp51.htm
My Reasons
I use GNU/Linux and the obvious choices are LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice and Abiword. They’re all fine and the first two can go toe to toe with MS Office any day of the week.
But sometimes, I think it’s a bit overkill. And LibreOffice isn’t exactly fast to load up. This isn’t the first time I’ve installed WordPerfect, but as I’ve got a bit of time on my hands, I thought I’d dig a bit deeper.
And to my knowledge, Linux never really had a great word processor (correct me if I’m wrong).
Add Colemak Keyboard Layout to Dosbox
I’m awkward so I use an alternative keyboard layout called Colemak. I’ve been using it since 2008 so the first order of business was to get that set up correctly.
Copy this mapper
Save that as colemak-0.74.map in you dosbox settings directory.
simon@computer:~/.dosbox$ tree
.
├── colemak-0.74.map
├── dosbox-0.74-3.conf
└── dosbox-0.74.confOpen dosbox-0.74-3.conf and find the line beginning with mapperfile
mapperfile=mapper-0.74-3.mapI usually just comment out the original value and add the new one below:
#mapperfile=mapper-0.74-3.map
mapperfile=colemak-0.74.mapObtain the Software
I searched for “Corel WordPerfect Suite 6.2 for DOS” and the filesize of the .7z file should be about 49.1MB.
Open with wine (5.0) and follow the prompts. I opted to only install WordPerfect, not the full suite.
Here are a few screenshots of the install process. Notice the help tips
When it’s finished installing you’ll need to launch WP.EXE
simon@computer:~/.wine/drive_c/COREL/WP62$ ls
CVDASC.CVX HRF6.FRS TIBM.VRS VMP.COM WP_OS2.ICO
CVDTKT.CVX INSTALL.EXE T_LES1K.TUT WP350M.ORS WPSTAND.DR
CVDWP5X.CVX LIBRARY.STY T_LES1M.TUT WP350.ORS WPUS.ICR
CVDWP60.CVX MACROS T_LES2.TUT WP480M.ORS WP{WPC}.LCN
CVDWPG1.CVX MCV.EXE T_LES3.TUT WP480.ORS WP{WPC}.QKL
CVDWPG2.CVX QFIGENUS.EXE T_LES4.TUT WP62.INS WP{WPC}.SET
CV.EXE README.ARS T_LIB.TUT WP62.PIF WP_WP_US.BRS
EGA512.FRS README.CV T_LTRS.TUT WP.COM WP_WP_US.HLM
EGAITAL.FRS README.FAX VAPINUL.COM WP_CV_US.DLG WP_WP_US.HLP
EGASMC.FRS README.MCV VGA512.FRS WP_CV_US.HLP WP_WP_US.MRS
EGAUND.FRS README.VRS VGAITAL.FRS WP.EXE WP_WP_US.QRS
EGA.VRS README.WP VGASMC.FRS WP.FIL WP_WP_US.TRS
GRAPHICS STANDARD.IRS VGAUND.FRS WPICONS.DLL WP_WP_US.TUT
HRF12.FRS TEMPLATE VGA.VRS WP.LRSWhich will give you the following beautiful screen
The first thing you’ll want to do is choose Help > Tutorial from the top menu.
And spend about twenty minutes going through them. It’s worth your time, I assure you.
By the way, your mouse will be trapped in the dosbox window. To free it hit CTRL-F10 (took me a while to discover that)!
WordPerfect Tips
www.microcounsel.com/WPTIPS.HTM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML_GoEUhs4A
And the first link at top of this page, has lots of great resources for getting help, manuals etc.