wordstar file format release 7

march 17, 1992

the wordstar file format is a living specification, continually evolving to
meet the needs of new provisions and features. with each release of wordstar,
new commands are established, and slight changes are made to the meaning of
various codes. while every effort has been made to make this document an
accurate reflection of the wordstar format as it stands now, no guarantee can
be given that future releases of the program will follow the specifications as
they are expressed here.

textual information
wordstar files contain text which conforms in general to the 7-bit ascii code
for printable characters. all codes below 20h are reserved for control
information, and the high (8th) bit on characters is likewise used to convey
information about formatting and document control. a raw stream of the
printable text in a wordstar file could therefore be discerned by masking off
the 8th bit and discarding codes in the range of 00h through 1fh. this
method would, of course, omit all formatting and control information in the
file. in addition to stripping control characters, symmetrical sequences must
be stripped. see the description of symmetrical sequences below.
more recent versions of wordstar (release 3.4 and above) provide for an
extension to the 7-bit ascii character set by means of 3-byte sequences.
these codes all begin with the lead-in character <1bh> and end with the
trailer <1ch>. the code in between these two characters can be any value in
the range from 00h through ffh. in general, this scheme is used to support
printable codes less than 20h and greater than 7fh.
starting with version 5.0, wordstar files also contain "symmetrical
sequences". these are used for footnotes, font tags, etc. in addition,
wordstar 5.0 (and later) files begin with a symmetrical sequence which is
used as a header. see the description of the header symmetrical sequence
below.

formatting and control information

high bits

all wordstar files terminate normal lines (paragraphs) with the sequence <0dh,
0ah> (carriage return, line feed). a "soft return" <8dh, 0ah> is inserted in
the text stream at the points where lines are subject to word-wrap. a "soft
space" <a0h> is inserted for tabbing, justification, and for left-margin
indentation. in normal mid-paragraph lines, the blank characters (usually
space) following words at the end of lines will be retained, so that the
user's text is fully retained.
an "inactive soft hyphen" <1eh> is inserted in the text stream at places where
hyphenation may be allowed to occur. when the word is actually broken at the
hyphenation spot, the inactive soft hyphen is changed to an "active soft
hyphen" <1fh>. this active hyphen, since it falls at the end of a
mid-paragraph line, will be immediately followed by the soft return mentioned
above.
in versions of wordstar prior to 5.0, the high bit was set on the last
character of all non-blank text strings that fell within the margins. the
printer drivers relied on this information to determine which text was to be
microjustified. this functionality was dropped in the later versions in
favor of the use of absolute tabs, margin dot commands, and paragraph styles.

low-order codes

wordstar (all versions) uses the ascii codes below 20h for control
information. the specific assignment of meanings to codes is as follows:

00h ^@    fix the print position. at print time the print head is moved to the
absolute column position where the ^@ appears in the text. this is
primarily used to line up proportional text or text that mixes the
normal and alternate character widths.

01h ^a    alternate font. at print time the alternate character width is
selected at the point in the text where the ^a appears. the
alternate character width can be either preinstalled or changed with
the .cw dot command while ^a is in effect. this print control is now
obsolete. see the description of symmetrical sequence 15h, below.

02h ^b    boldface type on/off toggle.

03h ^c    pause for user response during print.

04h ^d    double strike printing on/off toggle.

05h ^e    custom print control. the user may either preinstall the print
control string to be sent when ^e is encountered in the text, or the
.xe dot command may be used to define it within a document.

06h ^f    phantom space. primarily used to access characters on a daisy wheel
at the 20h print position. on other types of printers results vary.

07h ^g    phantom rubout. primarily used to access characters on a daisy wheel
at the 7fh print position. on other types of printers results vary.

08h ^h    overprint previous character.

09h ^i    tab character. at print time the number of hard spaces required to
reach a modulus 8 print position is generated.

0ah ^j    line feed. at print time causes a paper advance to the next line.

0bh ^k    within the main text body, it is used to around words or phrases to
be indexed. in a header or footer line, on odd numbered pages all
blanks following the ^k are suppressed.

0ch ^l    form feed. at print time causes page to be ejected. no footer lines
are printed.

0dh ^m    carriage return.

0eh ^n    return to the normal character width. now obsolete, see the
description for the symmetrical sequence 15h, below.

0fh ^o    binding space. printed as a space. it is used to bind together text
that must not be split when a paragraph is realigned.

10h ^p    reserved.

11h ^q    custom print control.

12h ^r    custom print control.

13h ^s    underline on/off toggle.

14h ^t    superscript on/off toggle.

15h ^u    reserved.

16h ^v    subscript on/off toggle.

17h ^w    custom print control.

18h ^x    strikeout on/off toggle. causes all text between successive ^x's to
be overstruck with a dash (unless re installed for some other
character).

19h ^y    italics on/off toggle (depending on the printer). versions of
wordstar prior to 5.0 could also use this character as a ribbon color
change. this was replaced in the later versions with color selection
via ^p-.

1ah ^z    end of file character. when encountered indicates the end of the
file.

1bh ^[    escape. reserved. also used as the extended character set lead-in
code. if the second byte following the 1bh is a 1ch, the intervening
byte is an extended character. example: <1bh,aeh,1ch>.

1ch ^\    reserved. also used as the extended character set trailer code if
the second byte preceding it is a 1bh.

1dh ^]    symmetrical sequence start/stop character (see below).

1eh ^^    inactive soft hyphen. indicates a position at which a word may be
broken for word-wrap.

1fh ^_    active soft hyphen. indicates a place at which a word has been
broken for word-wrap.

dot commands

additional formatting information is recorded in wordstar files through means
of "dot commands." dot commands are instructions that are preceded (in the
first position in the line) by a period <2eh> and stand alone as the only
entry on that line. (see the wordstar documentation for exact descriptions
of each dot command.)

in the table below, the codes in the "usage" column indicate the following:

    m    affects only merge printing.
    i    affects only indexing.
    t    affects only table of contents.
    p    affects printing or merge printing.
    e    affects editing, printing, or merge printing.

in most cases, the dot commands that affect editing show some effect on the
screen as the command is typed or changed. as the cursor is moved forward
through the document, wordstar stores enough information about the command
so that the previous state can be restored when the cursor is later moved
backwards. there is a limited amount of storage for this information and it
is controlled with the user area variable dstksz.

versions prior to 4.0 require whole numbers as arguments to dot commands that
require numbers (subscript roll, page offset). with version 4.0, math was
allowed in the arguments for easier entry of complex page layouts. in
version 5.0, the ability to specify measurements in inches was added. in
version 5.5 revision c, measurements in points and centimeters were allowed.
inches in 5.0 were specified using the double quote only. in 5.5c, inch
measurements were allowed with 'i' or 'in'. centimeters are specified as 'c'
or 'cm', and points with 'p' or 'pm'. upper and lower case are allowed with
these. most dot commands that take their arguments as number of lines or
columns will allow measurements as well. refer to the wordstar documentation
to find out which dot commands accept measurements as arguments.

the present interpretation of dot commands is:

command usage meaning

.av    m    ask for variable. requests the user to enter data from the
keyboard at print time for a specific variable.

.aw    e m    aligning and word wrap on/off. enables or disables aligning
and word wrap at a specific point in the document. used
primarily to prevent changes to tables.

.bn p bin select. selects one of the sheet feeder bins at print
time. the number of sheet feeders is defined in the pdf.

.bp    p    bidirectional print on/off. enables and disables
bidirectional printing. if the printer does not have
bidirectional printing capability, this command is ignored.

.cc    e p    conditional column break. like the .cp command, but works
with columnar breaks instead. if the number of lines
following the conditional column break command fit on the
current page, then there is no effect, otherwise, a columnar
break will occur.

.co    e p    columns. allows the user to specify the number of columns and
optionally, the gutter width in columns or inches.

.cp    e p    conditional page break. if there are less than the number of
lines specified remaining on the page, then a page break is
generated. if the number of lines following the conditional
page break fit on the current page, then there is no effect.
takes the line height changes into account.

.cs    p    clear screen and display message. this command is used to
clear the screen during printing. if a message follows the
.cs, it is displayed on the first screen line below the print
menu.

.cv    e p    convert note type. for further areas in the document, all
notes of the first type specified will be treated as notes of
the second type. works with comments, footnotes, and
endnotes.

.cw    p    character width. this command allows the user to specify
the width of the characters in 1/120 inch increments. this
width takes effect on the next line of text. either the
normal (^n) or alternate (^a) character width is changed
depending which is in effect. the default is 12 (12/120ths
is 10 characters per inch).

.df    m    data file. this merge print command is used to specify the file name which holds data that will be merged into text. the data file may be in comma delimited format, a dbase file, or a lotus 123, symphony, quattro, or vp- planner worksheet. the user may also optionally change the data separator character for that file.

.dm    p    display a message. displays a message on the screen at print time. if printing in the background../jpg/di1.JPG .dm's can "scroll off" the screen while it is hidden from the user.

.e#    e p    set endnote value. specifies the new value for endnote numbering.

.ei    m    end if. indicates the final spot in a merge print document affected by a .if command. there must be one .ei for every .if command.

.el    m    else. used for the "else" case after using a .if command. .el commands are optional.

.f#    e p    set footnote numbering type and value. specifies the new value for footnote numbering. optionally specifies whether footnote numbering should restart every page or be consecutive throughout the document.

.fi    p    file insert. prints the specified file at that point in the document. .fi commands may be nested up to 7 levels deep. .fi files can be in ascii, wordstar, or lotus 123, symphony, quattro, or vp-planner worksheets.

.fm    p    footer margin. the number of blank lines from the end of the text on a page to the first footer line. default is 2. the sum of the footer margin plus the number of footer lines must be less than or equal to the bottom margin.

.fo or f1    p    footer. the text following the command .f1 will be printed as the first footer line on this and all subsequent pages. a .fo (or .f1) followed by one or zero blanks cancels the footer line. the footer uses the character width and line height in effect at the time the .fo (or .f1) command is encountered in the text. .fo can optionally specify even or odd numbered page footers.

.f2    p    second footer.

.f3    p    third footer.

.f4    p    fourth footer.

.f5    p    fifth footer.

.go    p    go to top or bottom of document.

.he or h1    p    header. the text following the command .h1 is printed as the first header line on all subsequent pages. if the header command is one of the first dot commands on a page it takes effect for that page, otherwise it affects the following pages. a .he or .h1 followed by one or zero blanks cancels the header line. the header uses the character width and line height in effect at the time the .he or .h1 command is encountered in the text. .he can optionally specify even or odd numbered page headers.

.h2    p    second header.

.h3    p    third header.

.h4    p    fourth header.

.h5    p    fifth header.

.hm    p    header margin. the number of blanks lines between the top of the text on a page and the last header line. default is 2. the sum of the header margin plus the number of header lines must be less than or equal to the top margin.

.hy    e p    turn auto-hyphenation on/off. enables or disables the hyphenator. starting with wordstar 6.0 rev. d.

.if    m    if. used for conditional merge printing in conjunction with the .el and .ei commands. only simple conditions can be tested using the following operators:

            = strings alphabetically equal.
            <> strings unequal.
            > greater than.
            < less than.
            #= numbers equal.
            #<> numbers unequal.
            #> greater than.
            #< less than.

        .if commands may be nested up to 255 levels deep.

.ig or..    e    ignore. the text on the remainder of .. the line is treated as an unprinted comment.

.ix    i    index. the text on the remainder of the line is put in the index. a comma is used to separate a main index entry from a subentry. if a dash is the first character following the .ix, the index entry is treated as a cross reference entry. if a plus sign is the first character following the .ix, the page number for that index entry is printed in boldface.

.kr    p    kerning. adjusts space between certain pairs of printed characters for fonts that contain kerning information.

.l#    p    line numbering. specifies whether to turn line numbering off, or the spacing and position of the line numbering. also optional is whether to start numbering at the beginning of each page or the beginning of the document.

.lh    e p    line height. changes current line height in 1/48 inch increments. the default is 8/48 or 6 lines per inch. all lines following this command are set based on the current line height value. optionally, an argument of 'a' or 'a' will turn on "auto-leading", and all subsequent lines will use the line height of the largest font in the line.

.lm    e p    left margin. determines the left edge of subsequent text.

.lq    p    letter quality on/off. enables or disables letter quality printing on dot matrix printers (ignored if not supported on the printer).

.ls    e p    line spacing. selects a line spacing of between 1 and 9 for subsequent typing or paragraph alignment. a value of 1 is for single spacing, 2 for double spacing, etc.

.ma    m    math. stores the results of a complex equation in a variable.

.mb    e p    bottom margin. the footer or page number is printed within this margin. the default value is 8 lines.

.mt    e p    top margin. the number of lines from the beginning of the page to the beginning of printed text. the header is printed within this margin. default value is 3 lines.

.oc    e p    centering on/off. when on, further lines in the document will be centered within the left and right margins until a .oc off command is encountered.

.oj    e p    output justification on/off. command which turns right justification on or off for subsequent typing or paragraph realignment. when off, text is ragged at the right margin. when on, text is flush right.

.oj    c    center.
.oj    r    right flush.

.op    p    omit page number. at print time no page numbers are printed unless the "#" has been used in footers or headers.

.p#    e p    paragraph number. specifies the initial value and/or the format to use for paragraph numbering. also optionally specifies whether compound or outline numbering is to be used.

.pa    e p    page break. begin a new page here.

.pc    p    page column. indicates the column at which the page number will be printed. this is active only when the footers are not in use and page numbering is turned on. if the column specified is 0, then the page number is centered between the margins in effect where the .pc command is given.

.pe    p    print endnotes. when encountered during printing, endnotes will be printed at this point in the document.

.pf    p    paragraph realignment while printing. may be on, off, or dis (for discretionary). when on, subsequent paragraphs are realigned as they are printed. when off, paragraphs are not realigned. when dis, paragraphs are realigned only when merge print data is substituted in the document. paragraphs are aligned using the left, right, and paragraph margins currently in effect.

.pg    p    number pages. at print time the page number is printed at the bottom of the page unless a footer overrides it. usually used to restore page numbering after being turned off with .op.

.pl    e p    page length. the total number of lines in a page assuming 6 lines per inch. an eleven inch page contains 66 lines.

.pm    e p    paragraph margin. the left margin to use for the first line of every subsequent paragraph. used for both regular and hanging indents.

.pn    e p    page number. the current page number.

.po    p    page offset. the number of print columns from the left edge of the paper to the left margin of text. the current setting of character width (.cw) deter mines the actual amount of indentation. .po can optionally specify even or odd number page offsets.

.pr    p    printer information. currently used to select the print orientation for laser printers (use .pr or=l for landscape, and .pr or=p for portrait).

.ps    p    proportional spacing on/off. subsequent text is to be printed using a proportional font.

.rm    e p    right margin. determines the right edge of subsequent paragraphs.

.rp    m    repeat. command to repetitively print copies of a document. the .df command may interfere with the .rp command.

.rr    e p    ruler. embeds a ruler line to be used for subsequent typing and alignment. the text following the .rr is the exact image of the ruler line above the text on the screen. a .rr with a # (0-9) specifies a preformatted ruler line (stored in the user area).

.rv    m    read variable. merge print command used to read one or more of the next data from a file into variables.

.sb    e p    suppress blank lines on/off. starting with wordstar 6.0 rev. d, soft lines at the beginning of pages will be automatically suppressed. this dot command controls the display and printing of blank hard returns at the beginning of pages.

.sr    p    sub/superscript roll. the increments (in 1/48ths of an inch) which the carriage is to roll up or down for subscript and superscript printing. default is 3 (3/48ths of an inch).

.sv    m    set variable. merge print command used to store data in a variable.

.tb    e p    tab stops. sets multiple tab stops for further editing/printing in the document.

.tc    t    table of contents. the text following the .tc is a table of contents entry. a "#" indicates where the page number is to go in the entry. .tc1 through .tc9 are used to simultaneously build nine other tables.

.uj    p    micro justify. specifies whether subsequent lines are to be micro- justified at print time. when on, the white space necessary to right justify a line is spread in very fine increments evenly over the line. when off, whole blanks are used to spread the white space. when dis, the printer driver decides; microjustification is not performed if it slows down printing dramatically.

.ul    p    continuous underlining on/off. enables or disables underlining of blanks between words.

.xe .xq    p    custom print control. the hex pairs
.xr .xw        following the dot command define the custom print control for ^e, ^q, ^r, and ^w encountered in the text respectively. the definition may include up to five bytes.

.xl    p    form feed. the hex pairs following .xl define the print control string to be sent to eject the paper to the following page when printing.

.xx    p    strikeout character. redefines the character used for strikeouts.

symmetrical sequences

symmetrical sequences are used for features that cannot be handled by dot commands or print control characters, or that belong embedded in the text instead of in dot commands. all symmetrical sequences begin with the control character 1dh, followed by a count (2 bytes), and a type byte. symmetrical sequences end with a count (2 bytes), and the control character 1dh. the count is stored low order byte first and is the sum of all the characters in the symmetrical sequence minus 3 (thus the count can be added to the start address of the sequence to point to the end count). symmetrical sequences can contain any character including 1ah.

note that some symmetrical sequences can contain symmetrical sequences themselves (annotations, for example). currently only one level of this recursion is used.

also note that all of these sequences are subject to change.

the present interpretation of symmetrical sequences is:

header sequence

type:

0    header:
        byte: version number in bcd (50h for release 5.0, 55h for release 5.5, 60h for release 6.0)
        9 bytes: null terminated driver name for this document.
        2 bytes: reserved.
        2 words: 32-bit pointer to the beginning of the file's style library (lo word in lo,hi format, high word in lo,hi format).
        107 bytes: reserved. (total 128 bytes for header sequence including counts and leading/trailing 1dh).

print controls

1    color:
        byte: color number (see below).
        byte: previous color in file.
        the color number is as follows:
        0 - black
        1 - blue
        2 - green
        3 - cyan
        4 - red
        5 - magenta
        6 - brown
        7 - light grey
        8 - dark grey
        9 - light blue
        0ah - light green
        0bh - light cyan
        0ch - light red
        0dh - light magenta
        0eh - yellow
        0fh - white on black
2    font:
        word: font width in hmis (1/1800ths)
        word: font height in vmis (1/1440ths)
        word: typestyle (see below)
        word: previous font width
        word: previous font height
        word: previous typestyle

        please note that the typestyle definitions listed below are partial (more are being added) and may change.

        typestyles are defined by a word with the high order seven bits defined as follows:

bit #:    usage:

    15        proportional flag
    14        letter quality flag
    13        symbol mapping high bit
    12        symbol mapping low bit
00 = code page 437
01 = code page 850
10 = math
11 = symbols

    11        generic style, high bit
    10        generic style, low bit
00 = sans serif font
01 = serif font
10 = script font
11 = display font
    9        set to 1 to indicate that this font symmetrical sequence is different from previous versions. previous versions had this bit set to 0.
the low order nine bits (8 through 0) contain the typestyle number (which corresponds to a named typestyle). when a typestyle appears in a font symmetrical sequence that does not match the printer selected, a best guess is made for the closest font that will match.

0 lineprinter
1 pica
2 elite
3 courier
4 helv (also helvetica, cg triumvirate, and swiss)
5 tms rmn (also cg times, times roman and dutch)
6 gothic (see also 130 letter gothic)
7 script
8 prestige (see also 48 prestige elite)
9 caslon
10 orator
11 presentations
12 helv cond. (also swiss condensed)
13 serifa
14 blippo
15 windsor
16 century (also see #23)
17 zapfhumanist
18 garamond
19 cooper
20 coronet
21 broadway
22 bodoni
23 cntry schlbk (also see #16)
24 univ. roman
25 helv outline
26 peignot (also exotic)
27 clarendon
28 stick
29 hp-gl drafting
30 hp-gl spline
31 times
32 hplj soft font
33 borders
34 uncle sam open
35 raphael
36 uncial
37 manhattan
38 dom casual
39 old english
40 trium condensed
41 trium ultracomp
42 trade extracond
43 american classic (also amerigo)
44 globe gothic outline
45 universcondensed (also zurich condensed)
46 univers (also zurich)
47 tmsrmncond (oki laserline 6)
48 prstelite (see also 8 prestige)
49 optima
50 aachen (postscript)
51 amtypewriter
52 avant garde
53 benguiat
54 brush script
55 carta
56 centennial
57 cheltenham
58 franklingothic
59 frstylescrpt
60 frizquadrata
61 futura
62 galliard
63 glypha
64 goudy
65 hobo
66 lubalingraph
67 lucida
68 lucidamath
69 machine
70 melior (also zapf elliptical)
71 newbaskrvlle (also baskerville)
72 newcntschlbk
73 news gothic (also trade gothic)
74 palatino (also zapf calligraphic)
75 park avenue
76 revue
77 sonata
78 stencil
79 souvenir
80 trmpmedievel (also activa)
81 zapfchancery
82 zapfdingbats
83 stone
84 cntryoldstyle
85 corona
86 goudyoldstyle
87 excelsior
88 futuracondensed
89 helvcompressed
90 helvextracompressed
91 helv narrow
92 helvultracompressed
93 korinnakursiv
94 lucida sans
95 memphis
96 stone informal
97 stone sans
98 stone serif
99 postscript
100 nps utility
101 nps draft
102 nps corr
103 nps sansser qual
104 nps serif qual
105 ps utility
106 ps draft
107 ps corr
108 ps sansser qual
109 ps serif qual
110 download
111 nps ecs qual (daisy wheel)
112 ps plastic (daisy wheel)
113 ps metal (daisy wheel)
114 cloisterblack
115 gill sans (also hammersmith)
116 rockwell (also slate)
117 tiffany (itc)
118 clearface
119 amelia
120 handelgothic
121 oratorsc (star et al)
122 outline (toshiba)
123 bookman light (canon)
124 humanist (canon)
125 swiss narrow (canon)
126 zapfcalligraphic (canon)
127 spreadsheet (quadlaser)
128 broughm (brother printers)
129 anelia (brother printers)
130 ltrgothic (as defined by brother)
131 boldface (boldface ps)
132 high density (nec)
133 high speed (nec)
134 super focus (nec p2200)
135 swiss outline (cordata)
136 swiss display (cordata)
137 momento outline (cordata)
138 courier italic (ti 855)
139 text light (cordata)
140 momento heavy (cordata)
141 barcode
142 ean/upc
143 math-7 (hplj)
144 math-8 (hplj)
145 swiss
146 dutch
147 trend (nissho)
148 holsatia (qume laser)
149 serif (ibm pageprinter)
150 bandit (cordata)
151 bookman (cordata)
152 casual (cordata)
153 dot (cordata)
154 edp (epson gq3500)
155 extgraphics (epson gq3500)
156 garland (canon laser)
157 pc line
158 hp line
159 hamilton (qms)
160 korinna (cordata)
161 linedrw (qms)
162 modern
163 momento (cordata)
164 mx (cordata)
165 pc (cordata)
166 pi
167 profile (quadlaser)
168 q-fmt (qms)
169 rule (cordata)
170 sb (cordata)
171 taylor (cordata)
172 text (cordata)
173 apl
174 artisan
175 triumvirate
176 chart
177 classic
178 data
179 document
180 emperor
181 essay
182 forms
183 facet
184 micro (also microstyle, eurostile)
185 ocr-a
186 ocr-b
187 apollo (blaser)
188 math
189 scientific
190 sonoran (ibm pageprinter)
191 square 3
192 symbol
193 tempora
194 title
195 titan
196 theme
197 taxlinedraw
198 vintage
199 xcp
200 eletto (olivetti)
201 est elite (olivetti)
202 idea (olivetti)
203 italico (olivetti)
204 kent (olivetti)
205 mikron (olivetti)
206 notizia (olivetti)
207 roma (olivetti)
208 presentor (olivetti)
209 victoria (olivetti)
210 draft italic (olivetti)
211 ps capita (olivetti)
212 qual italic (olivetti)
213 antique olive (also provence)
214 bauhaus (itc)
215 eras (itc)
216 mincho
217 serifgothic (itc)
218 signet roundhand
219 souvenir gothic
220 stymie (atf)
221 bernhard modern
222 grand ronde script
223 ondine (also mermaid)
224 pt barnum
225 kaufmann
226 bolt (itc)
227 antolivecompact (also provence compact)
228 garth graphic
229 ronda (itc)
230 engshcreibschrift
231 flash
232 gothic outline (urw)
233 akzidenz-grotesk
234 td logos
235 shannon
236 oberon
237 callisto
238 charter
239 plantin
240 helvetica black (ps)
241 helvetica light (ps)
242 arnold bocklin (ps)
243 fette fraktur (ps)
244 greek (ps (universal greek))

notes

3    footnote
word: line count of footnote text.
word: offset to the internal sequence containing the footnote number tag. if there is an internal tag, the high order bit of this word will be set and the low 15 bits will be the offset of the internal sequence. if the hi order bit is not set, then this number is the footnote number to use.
byte: not used, conversion flag is now in the internal tag symmetrical sequence. if the footnote contains no tag, then this byte is used for the conversion flag.
remaining bytes are for text of the footnote itself.
the text can contain another sequence of the same format. this internal sequence is used to display or print the tag associated with the note: word: not used (line count assumed 1)
word: footnote number.
byte: conversion flag. normally 0, unless .cv or .f# is used to convert notes from one type or format to another. the format of the low order nybble of this byte is the same as the numbers for footnotes, endnotes and comments. if this nybble is 4, convert this note to an endnote. if 6, convert to a comment.
the high order nybble of this byte is for the format type of the note (alphabetic, numeric, etc.). 0 means to use symbols, 1 is for upper case, 2 is for lower case, and three is for numbers.
4    endnote
word: line count of endnote text.
word: offset to the internal sequence containing the endnote number tag. if there is an internal tag, the high order bit of this word will be set and the low 15 bits will be the offset of the internal sequence. if the hi order bit is not set, then this number is the endnote number to use.
byte: not used, conversion flag is now in the internal tag symmetrical sequence. if the footnote contains no tag, then this byte is used for the conversion flag.
remaining bytes are for text of the endnote itself.
the text can contain another sequence of the same format. this internal sequence is used to display or print the tag associated with the note: word: not used (line count assumed 1)
word: endnote number.
byte: conversion flag. normally 0, unless .cv is used to convert notes from one type to another. the format of the low order nybble of this byte is the same as the numbers for footnotes, endnotes and comments. if this byte is 3, convert this note to a footnote. if 6, convert to a comment.
the high order nybble of this byte is for the format type of the note (alphabetic, numeric, etc.). 0 means to use symbols, 1 is for upper case, 2 is for lower case, and three is for numbers.

5    annotation (arbitrary note)
word: line count of annotation text.
word: offset to the internal tag (only the low order 15 bits are used for this, as in footnotes and endnotes). if the high order bit is set, it indicates that there is an internal tag. if there is no internal tag, the entire word will be 0.
byte: conversion flag. not used for annotations.
remaining bytes are for text of the annotation itself.
the text can contain another sequence of the same format. this internal sequence is used to display or print the tag associated with the note: word: not used (line count assumed 1)
word: not used.
remaining bytes are for the text used to display and print the tag of the note (can be null).
byte: conversion flag. not used for annotations.

6    comment
word: line count of the comment.
word: tag offset (not used).
byte: conversion flag. normally 0, unless .cv is used to convert notes from one type to another. the format of the low order nybble of this byte is the same as the numbers for footnotes, endnotes and comments. if this byte is 4, convert this note to an endnote. if 3, convert to a footnote.
the high order nybble of this byte is for the format type of the note (alphabetic, numeric, etc.). 0 means to use symbols, 1 is for upper case, 2 is for lower case, and three is for numbers.
since comments don't contain internal tags for display with print control display off, no internal sequence is used, and the remaining bytes are the text of the comment.

7    reserved.

8    reserved.

tabs

9    tabs and dot leaders
word: tab size in hmis
word: absolute tab size in hmis
byte: tab type: space for hard tab, soft space for soft tab, '#' for decimal tab. also, '!' is used for center line tab, '[' for right align line tab. other character such as '.' or '*' are used for dot leaders.
byte: tab size in 1/10th

0ah    reserved.

0bh    end of page
this sequence should usually be ignored. it's used by the wordstar editor to keep track of page breaks. it is transient, and moves around with the page break.
word: current vmis on this page
word: line # on page
byte: newspaper type column number
byte: # of newspaper type columns in effect.
word: vmi placement from top of page where newspaper type columns begin.
word: line number from top of page where newspaper type columns begin.
word: footnote number currently in effect.
word: total vmis for footnotes on this page.
word: total vmis for footnote header and separator lines.
word: vmis leftover on this page from footnote not completely printed (for running footnotes).
5 words: reserved.

0ch    page offset
reserved for printer driver use only. should not appear in files.
byte: number of blanks before line number (0 if no number).
word: absolute hmi spot for line number (0 if no number).
byte: number of blanks after line number.
word: absolute hmi spot for start of text.
byte: number of bytes in line number.
bytes: ascii of line number.

others

0dh    paragraph number
byte: number of level moves forward from previous paragraph number. 0 to stay at current level, 1 to move in a level.
byte: number of level moves backwards from previous paragraph number. 0 to stay at current level (or forwards if previous byte non- zero), or number of levels moved left (2.1.1 going to 3 would mean this byte would be a 2).
byte: level number of this paragraph number (1 based).
word: level 1 number, 0 based.
word: level 2 number, 0 based.
word: level 3 number, 0 based.
word: level 4 number, 0 based.
word: level 5 number, 0 based.
word: level 6 number, 0 based.
word: level 7 number, 0 based.
word: level 8 number, 0 based.
31 bytes indicating the format to use for this paragraph number, including a zero terminator.

0eh    index item
text for the index item.

0fh    user print control
word: number of hmis this sequence uses on the printed page.
byte: number of characters used for screen display.
text: the display string itself.
the remaining bytes contained in this sequence will be sent directly to the printer.

10h    graphics insert
text: file name to use for graphics insert. length is determined from length of symmetrical sequence.
11h    paragraph style
word: new paragraph style number. this number is an index into the document's style library. this is the style that the user just selected.

word: previously selected paragraph style number. this is an index into the document's style library of the style previously selected by the user.

word: previous paragraph 'modified' style number. this is the current style conditions before this selection was made. because attributes and fonts may have changed since the last style selection was made, new temporary styles must be created in the library to reflect changes.

word: previous-previous selected, for reverting. this is the style selected by the user prior to the previous style. this is used to revert back to the previous style (^ofp). this is necessary for wordstar to know the previously selected style when moving backwards in the file without having to keep a list.

12h-14h    reserved.

15h    alternate/normal font change
byte: normal = 0, alternate = 1.
the rest of the sequence is like a font symmetrical sequence, with the new font characteristics (width, height, and typestyle), followed by the previous font characteristics. this sequence is inserted by the editor whenever a ^n or ^a is encountered when editing, or when entering ^pa or ^pn.

16h    truncation
used when a large symmetrical sequence doesn't fit in ram. rather than leave the symmetrical sequence open, it's shortened to fit in ram. both the leading and trailing count words are adjusted in the offending symmetrical sequence, and this sequence is placed inside the sequence at the end. this usually will happen with large footnotes or endnotes. the sequence contains no information (only the count words and the type byte), but gets translated to "<truncated>" when printed or displayed.

17h    japanese font shift-in/shift-out
byte: shift-in (to japanese) = 1, shift-out (back to normal) = 0.
used to change wordstar's interpretation of character codes within the file. when shifted in, wordstar no longer uses the 1bh/1ch wrap characters and interprets characters using the asian character standard which uses 81h-9fh and e0h-feh for a prefix followed by 20-7fh to form a complete character (values not in those ranges use only one byte. japanese versions of wordstar only.

18h-0ffh    reserved.

paragraph style libraries

the paragraph style library is kept in three places:

1)    wsstyle.ovr. this is the main style library from which selections are made.

2)    the file being edited contains copies of all styles that are used in the document (this library is kept at the end of the file. a 32-bit pointer is placed in the header symmetrical sequence which points to the beginning of the document's library).

3)    a temporary file contains the current working copy of the document's styles , which contains the styles from the end of the document, the library styles, and temporary styles while editing.

file style library

the header symmetrical sequence contains a 32-bit absolute offset into the file where the style library begins (see the description of the header symmetrical sequence). this offset is actually the offset of the master index which may be used for structures other than paragraph styles. this offset must be on a sector (128-byte) boundary. the structure of the master index follows:

byte: 1ah -- end of file indicator regardless of wordstar filling remainder of last 128-byte sector with 1ah's.

byte: wordstar style version number in bcd (55h for version 5.5). this number will change to reflect the version of wordstar when there is a revision in the style library that would cause incompatibilities between versions.

word: next 512-byte block number available relative to the index start, not the document start.

byte: number of objects (currently 1, paragraph styles only).

master index begins here. it currently consists of only 1 object (paragraph styles).
word: number of index entries allocated. this is the number of index entries that are available for use in the blocks that have been allocated to the master index.

word: size of an object entry (102 decimal for paragraph styles).

double word: pointer to beginning of object index. usually points to next byte since paragraph styles are the only object. this pointer is relative to the beginning of the master index, not the document file itself.

object index begins here.

byte: number of index entries in this block. (14 for paragraph styles)

double word: link to next index block. this pointer is relative to the beginning of the master index, not the document file itself.

index items follow:

24 bytes: object name (paragraph style name, left justified, blank filled)

byte: used internally.

word: used internally.

word: used internally.

double word: pointer to style entry. this pointer is relative to the beginning of the master index, not the document file itself.

the above index item is repeated for each indexed entry. if the block is filled with indexes, the link to next index block can be used to go to the next set of indexes.

style entry:

3 words: font description. see the font symmetrical sequence description. first word is -1 if inherited.

2 words: reserved.

word: left margin in hmi, -2 (0fffeh) if inherited.

word: right margin in hmi, -2 (0fffeh) if inherited.

word: paragraph margin in hmi, -2 (0fffeh) if inherited.

word: reserved.

byte: number of regular tabs, 0 if inherited (also, first tab stop below will be -1).

byte: number of decimal tabs, 0 if inherited (also, first tab stop below will be -1).

32 words: tab stops in hmis. regular tabs are first. if first tab stop is -1 (0ffffh), then tabs are inherited.

word: reserved.

byte: justification flag. 0 means no justification, -1 means inherit, 1 means right justified, -2 means centered, and -3 means flush right.

byte: word wrap flag. 1 means word wrap is on, 0 is off, -1 means inherit.

word: line height in vmi, -1 = inherit.

byte: line spacing (1-9), -1 = inherit.

2 words: print attributes on, off. bits set in the first word indicate those attributes are explicitly set to the on state. bits set in the second word indicate those attributes are explicitly set off. if both corresponding bits are off, then the attribute is inherited from the current state. descriptions of the bits are as follows:

strikeout    000000000000001b
doublestrike    000000000000010b

underlining    000000000001000b
subscript    000000000010000b
superscript    000000000100000b
bold    000000001000000b
italics    000000010000000b

byte: color. see a description of the color symmetrical sequence. -1 means inherited.

6 bytes: reserved.