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- MULTIPLE COPIES IN WORDSTAR
-
- "WordStar is the most powerful wordprocessor ever developed
- for CP/M computers. It's hard to learn, though, because you have
- to memorize so many multiple-keystroke commands. In addition, it
- lacks two of Perfect Writer's capabilities: (1) block-deletes
- can't be 'yanked back': once you delete something from WordStar
- it's gone forever; and (2) WordStar can't print multiple copies."
- è If you can't find at least five errors in that statement,
- you're not trying. The multiple-copy canard, for example, is so
- often repeated that you'd think nobody had ever seen MailMerge.
- If you've seen it (as a file on your WordStar disk that's called
- MAILMRGE.OVR), then all you have to do to print multiple copies
- is type M (instead of P) followed by a <CR> when you return to
- the Opening Menu to print your file. You will be presented with
- a dialogue that's exactly like the customary printing dialogue,
- except for the fourth question, "Number of copies."
- And if you don't have MailMerge? In that case, the only
- program you'll really need is an interactive batch-processor like
- EX.COM, a public-domain utility that's available from the SoInKUG
- library. Copy it to your WordStar disk, put that disk in Drive A
- and the file you want to print in Drive B, and bring up CP/M's
- A>prompt. Then turn your printer on and type the following,
- substituting the actual name of your file for FILENAME.EXT:
- EX <CR>
- WS <CR>
- P B:FILENAME.EXT <ESC> <CR>
- P B:FILENAME.EXT <ESC> <CR>
- X <CR>
- <CR>
- That will print two copies of FILENAME.EXT. If you want three
- copies, add another repetition of P B:FILENAME.EXT <ESC> <CR>.
- And so on.
- [===============]
-
- THE WORDSTAR YANKBACK
-
- To be able to recover from a bungled block-delete in
- WordStar you must make it a habit always to save your text
- (<CTRL>-K S) before issuing the block-delete command (<CTRL>-K
- Y). Then if you find that you've deleted something you wanted
- to keep, all you have to do is abandon the file (<CTRL>-K Q),
- which will return you to the Opening Menu, from which you can
- then call the file back exactly as it was the moment before you
- carried out your ill-fated deletion.
- That's all well and good, but of course the very absent-
- mindedness that led you to mark the wrong passage for deletion in
- the first place, is just as likely to make you forget to save the
- file before doing a block-delete. That's why you'd be better off
- using a key-definition package like SmartKey or Backgrounder to
- automate the whole process, by defining two special keys as
- follows:
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- BLOCK-DELETE | UNDO
- <CTRL>-K S | <CTRL>-K Q
- <CTRL>-Q P | Y
- <CTRL>-K Y | D
- | <CTRL>-R
- | <CR>
- -----------------------------------------------------------------
- Mark the block in the usual way, but execute the actual deletion
- by pressing your new Block-Delete key. If the results distress
- you, press the new Undo key immediately and the missing text will
- èbe yanked back, almost as if you were using Perfect Writer.
- A word of caution, however: be sure to locate your Undo key
- someplace where you'll be unlikely to strike it by accident. You
- can recover from a block-delete now, but a careless yankback can
- still do you in.
- [==============]
-
- Asked why he was now using an IBM PC, the legendary Ward
- Christensen (the Shakespeare of CP/M) replied, in an interview
- quoted in the Jul-Sep 1985 Peopletalk Quarterly, "One day I
- decided I wanted to use a slow computer with a lousy keyboard."