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  • Showing only topics in ~tech with the tag "wordperfect". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Word processing like it's 1993

      I thought younger people may find it interesting to experience what older, very popular, word processors were like. Here's WordPerfect 6.0, emulated in the browser:...

      I thought younger people may find it interesting to experience what older, very popular, word processors were like.

      Here's WordPerfect 6.0, emulated in the browser: https://archive.org/details/msdos_wordperfect6

      Here's a link to the instruction manual: https://archive.org/details/wordperfectversi00word/mode/2up

      Here's a bit of history: DOSDays - WordPerfect $495 in 1983 is roughly $1500 today.

      Here's the recommended specs (not the minimum specs)

      Personal computer using 386 processor
      520k free conventional memory
      DOS 6.0 or memory management software
      Hard disk with 16M disk space for complete installation
      VGA graphics adapter and monitor

      F1 is the default help key.

      Page 409 of the manual talks about menus. This is version 6 so they give you a drop down menu. To get an idea of how version 5 and earlier would appear by default (without the menubar, just the blue screen), hit alt v, then p. T (To get the menu back hit alt =, then V, then P) People might find it weird but those drop down menus first appeared in 5.1, and were a bit deal: "On 6th November 1989 WordPerfect released what would be their most successful version - WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, selling for $495 in the U.S. This was the first version to support Macintosh-style text-based pull down menus to supplement the traditional function key shortcuts and mouse support."

      I'd be interested to know how easy people find it to use. At the time I had the keyboard overlay (example for WP5) and the muscle memory, but that's all gone now.

      53 votes