WordPerfect for UNIX Character Terminals

This is a set of build scripts and patches to make WordPerfect for UNIX (Released 1997) work on modern Linux.

You need the following file to build this, available here.

$ md5sum COREL_WPUNIX.iso
c777f6024a95d68a1fc85b42c8e2212b  COREL_WPUNIX.iso

Note: If you just want a .deb to try out, check the Releases tab.

Screenshots

The default look.

The classic "Reveal Codes" view.

It uses Sixels to generate print previews in the terminal!

The built-in macro editor.

I found this fun print ad for this release here with a screenshot of the text interface and the GUI.

Licensing

In theory, this is an evaluation copy, but I haven't noticed any limitations.

Getting Started

Run wp to start WordPerfect.

The default keybinding to open the menu is Esc,=. That means press the Esc key and then the = key.

You can exit with F7.

There is a full scanned manual available online here, WordPerfect DOS 5.1 and WordPerfect UNIX 7.0 are very similar.

There is a huge amount of useful information that is mostly relevant to wpunix on the wpdos and wptoolbox sites.

If you want the classic "white on blue" look...

• Go to File>Setup>Display.
• Select Colors/Fonts/Attributes.
• Set the BG for all Attributes to f.
• Press F7 to close.

• The default keybinding for the famous "Reveal Codes" window is Ctrl+Shift+F3.
• There is online help available, press F3 at any time.
• Set your macro files directory to a somewhere you can write (like your $HOME) in Location of Files settings.
• If your terminal supports sixels, enable the vt340hi_sixel driver to get print previews.

Terminals

WordPerfect comes with a utility called wpterm for adjusting the terminal definition.

The bundled terminal definitions were decades out of date, so I updated them to work with modern xterm-compatible terminals.