View source for WordStar

===NewStar===
WordStar became popular in large companies without MicroPro. The company, which did not have a corporate sales program until December 1983,<ref name="iw19850415">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zC4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA20 | title=Micropro Fights for Office Market | work=InfoWorld | date=April 15, 1985 | access-date=February 4, 2015 | pages=20–21}}</ref> developed an arrogant reputation among customers. After [[PC DOS]] 1.1 was incompatible with WordStar 3.02 MicroPro did not update its software for months, then did not notify customers who had mailed in registration cards of its existence or later updates. 3.3, released in 1983, had many improvements and much better documentation but still did not use more than 64K RAM at once.{{r|manes198306}} ''[[PC Magazine]]'' wrote that year that the company's "motto often seems to be: 'Ask Your Dealer'",<ref name="vangelder198309"/> and in 1985 that<ref name="stinson19850205">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BGNWNTJnuRcC&pg=PA33 | title=WordStar 2000: MicroPro Odyssey | work=PC Magazine | date=February 5, 1985 | access-date=October 28, 2013 | author=Stinson, Craig | pages=33}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Almost since its birth 4 years ago, MicroPro has had a seemingly unshakable reputation for three things: arrogant indifference to user feedback ("MicroPro's classic response to questions about ''WordStar'' was, "Call your dealer"); possession of one of the more difficult-to-use word processors on the market; and possession of the most powerful word processor available.}}

By late 1984, the company admitted, according to the magazine, that WordStar's reputation for power was fading,{{r|stinson19850205}} and by early 1985, its sales had decreased for four quarters while those of Multimate and [[Samna]] increased.{{r|iw19850415}} At some point WordStar's [[source code]] was reportedly lost and reconstructed by Peter Mierau. After being laid off by the company in October 1982, he and other former MicroPro employees formed rival company NewStar. In September 1983, it published WordStar clone NewWord, which offered several features the original lacked, such as a built-in [[spell checker]] and support for [[laser printer]]s. Advertisements stated that "Anyone with WordStar experience won't even have to read NewWord's manuals. WordStar text files work with NewWord". Despite competition from NewStar, Microsoft Word, [[WordPerfect]], and dozens of other companies, which typically released new versions of their software every 12 to 18 months, MicroPro did not release new versions of WordStar beyond 3.3 during 1984 and 1985, in part because Rubinstein relinquished control of the company after a January 1984 heart attack. His replacements canceled the promising [[office suite]] Starburst, purchased a WordStar clone, and used it as the basis of WordStar 2000, released in December 1984. It received poor reviews—by April 1985 ''PC Magazine'' referred to WordStar 2000 as "beleaguered"—due to not being compatible with WordStar files and other disadvantages, and by selling at the same {{US$|long=no|495}} price as WordStar 3.3 confused customers. Company employees were divided between WordStar and WordStar 2000 factions, and fiscal year 1985 sales declined to {{US$|long=no|40}} million.{{r|bergin2006}}<ref name="caruso19841119">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pS4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22wordstar+2000%22&pg=PA15 | title=NEW WORDSTAR ON THE WAY | access-date=March 6, 2011 | author=Caruso, Denise | date=November 19, 1984 | magazine=InfoWorld | page=15}}</ref><ref name="wortman1985010714">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-i4EAAAAMBAJ&q=%22wordstar+2000%22&pg=PA47 | title=Wordstar 2000 | access-date=March 6, 2011 | author=Wortman, Leon A. | date=January 7, 1985 | magazine=InfoWorld | page=47}}</ref><ref name="angel19860519">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SS8EAAAAMBAJ&q=newstar+new+word+wordstar&pg=PA57 | title=NewWord 3 Is Now More Than Clone Of WordStar | access-date=March 6, 2011 | author=Angel, Jonathan | date=May 19, 1986 | magazine=InfoWorld | page=57}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/PROFILES_Volume_1_Number_5_1984-03_Kaypro_Corp_US#page/n55/mode/2up | title=Your troubles are over / There's a NewWord for efficiency (advertisement) | work=PROFILES | date=March 1984 | access-date=October 16, 2013 | pages=57–58}}</ref><ref name="machrone19850402">{{cite news | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1aA2lOwdNIC&pg=PA34 | title=MicroPro Revamps WordStar 2000 | work=PC Magazine | date=April 2, 1985 | access-date=October 28, 2013 | author=Machrone, Bill | pages=34}}</ref>{{r|wordstar.org}}

[[Jerry Pournelle]] wrote in September 1984 that NewWord was file and command compatible with WordStar 3.3, with comparable speed, more features, and better built-in help. He quoted another user as describing it as "WordStar without glitches".<ref name="pournelle198409">{{Cite magazine |last=Pournelle |first=Jerry |date=September 1984 |title=On the Road |url=https://archive.org/details/BYTE_Vol_09-10_1984-09_Computer_Graphics/page/n364/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2025-04-09 |magazine=BYTE |pages=363–382}}</ref> By that year, NewWord had released a second version, and many WordStar users switched to it. A third version appeared in 1986;{{r|wordstar.org}} ''The New York Times'' wrote that NewWord 3 "provides the perfect excuse for WordStar users to switch software, as if WordStar users needed an excuse".<ref name="lewis19860107">{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Peter H. |date=January 7, 1986 |title=PERIPHERALS; PATH IN JUNGLE OF SOFTWARE FOR WRITING |language=en-US |pages=C7 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/07/science/peripherals-path-in-jungle-of-software-for-writing.html |access-date=May 9, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In February 1985 MicroPro promised updates to WordStar 3.3,{{r|machrone19850402}} but the company's attempt to improve Mierau's reconstructed source code reportedly resulted in an unusable product. No update appeared until new management purchased NewWord and used it as the basis of WordStar 4.0 in 1987, four years after the previous version. Word (four versions from 1983 to 1987) and WordPerfect (five versions), however, had become the market leaders. More conflict between MicroPro's two factions delayed WordStar 5.0 until late 1988, again hurting the program's sales. After renaming itself after its flagship product in 1989, WordStar International merged with [[SoftKey]] in 1993.{{r|bergin2006}}<ref name="willett19930524">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PTsEAAAAMBAJ&q=softkey%20worstar&pg=PA31 | title=Merger is first step to a consumer orientation for WordStar | access-date=March 6, 2011 | author=Willett, Shawn | date=May 24, 1993 | magazine=InfoWorld | page=31}}</ref><ref name="ieeetimeline">{{cite web | url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4 | title=Word Processing Timeline | access-date=March 6, 2011 | author=Bergin, Thomas J. | date=Oct–Dec 2006 | publisher=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing | archive-date=October 11, 2012  | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011130022/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/annals/extras/wordvol28n4 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="dvoraknewword">{{cite web |last1=Dvorak |first1=John C. |title=Whatever Happened to NewWord? "Dvorak News Blog |url=https://www.dvorak.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-newword/ |access-date=April 28, 2024}}</ref>