The European Monetary and Currency Union began using the euro currency symbol
on
1 January 1999. Because the euro symbol was introduced after Corel stopped
development work on WordPerfect for DOS, the DOS versions of the program have no
built-in support for it. The files on this site make it possible (with minor
limitations) to use the euro symbol with the same flexibility and ease that
other currency and typographic symbols are used in WordPerfect.
All the drivers and other WordPerfect-related files on this site assign the euro symbol to WP character 4,72. This is the same WP character used for the euro in recent versions of WordPerfect for Windows. If the solutions offered on this site are installed in your WordPerfect system, documents that contain the euro symbol will print and display correctly in WPWIN and WPDOS, and can be exchanged freely between operating systems.
The solutions offered here include the following. Unless noted, all are available for both WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x. You probably do not need all of them, but if you use WPDOS 6.x, it is highly recommended that you begin with the first.
A few remaining unsolved problems in WPDOS euro support are listed as unfinished business.
The official euro site has further information on the currency and its symbol.
If you have WordPerfect 6.x for DOS, start here. All the other euro support provided on this site will be far easier to implement if you adopt this solution first. For most users, this solution will be sufficient for occasional use of the euro symbol.
Graphic mode and print preview in WPDOS 6.x display text using graphic fonts in a unique format. One of these fonts, in the file WPHV04N_.WA0, contains the WP Typographic Symbols characters. This self-extracting archive (30KB) contains a drop-in replacement for the original font file, in which the circle-U character (WP Character 4,72) has been replaced with the euro symbol. If you replace the original font with this modified file, the euro will display in graphic mode and print preview, and will print on any printer that supports graphics, whether or not the printer includes the euro symbol in hardware.
Note that the circle-U character will continue to appear in graphic-mode menus, because I have not been able to modify the font WordPerfect uses for its menus. If any WordPerfect guru knows how to modify the menu font, please contact me.
To install the replacement font, follow these instructions carefully:
Note: If no location is listed for Type 1 fonts, you did not choose the option to install graphic fonts when you first installed WordPerfect. Update your WordPerfect installation to include the graphic fonts.
The euro symbol in this file is 500 units wide; the euro symbol used by WordPerfect for Windows is 780 units wide. This may affect formatting if you exchange files between WPDOS and WPWIN. Expert users can use the PTR program to modify the WP Typographic Symbols proportional spacing table in WP.DRS to make the 4,72 symbol 780 units wide if this is a problem, but this change will not alter the actual width of the character and the printed output from WPDOS may not be formatted correctly.
If you want to restore the original version of the graphic font file, and you no longer have your backup copy, you can use the WordPerfect installer to reinstall the graphic fonts. Or you can download a copy of the original version (16KB) of the file here.
Note that if your printer includes euro support, and you use one of the new LaserJet or DeskJet drivers on this site's 6.x printer drivers page, the euro in the graphic font will display in WordPerfect, but the euro symbol used by the printer will print on the page. The same result will occur if you use HP's euro soft fonts (as described below) and one of this site's printer drivers.
Technical note: Here is how the modified font was created. The WordPerfect Font Installer (WPFI) generates a WA0 file when it installs a Type 1 PFB font file; the WA0 file contains the Type 1 font information in a compressed format that only WPDOS recognizes. Normally, only the WA0 files were distributed with WordPerfect, not the PFB files from which they were created. However, the original WP Typographic Symbols PFB font file was distributed on the CD-ROM version of WPDOS 6.1, so it was possible to modify it. I used Fontographer (the PFB was originally created in Fontographer) to replace the circle-U character with a euro symbol with the same width, and then saved the file. I then renamed the original WA0 file and used WPFI to remove all information about the WA0 file from WP.DRS. I then installed the modified PFB file, and WPDOS automatically created the modified WA0 file that is available for download from this site.
Starting in 1999, most newly-released laser printers included built-in support for the euro symbol. Examples of such printers are the Hewlett-Packard 2100, 4050, and 8100 series. The Lexmark Optra E310, M410, T610, and W810 and later models are also euro-enabled (confirmation or corrections on this information would be received gratefully).
The updated 5.1 printer drivers and 6.x printer drivers on this site support euro-enabled HP printers, and should also work with euro-enabled Lexmark printers. Access the euro symbol as WP character 4,72.
HP and Lexmark both offer euro-enabling firmware upgrades for many earlier models; details may be found on their web sites.
Soft fonts that contain the euro symbol are available at no charge from Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, and Lexmark.
Adobe provides twelve separate Type 1 soft fonts: regular, italic, bold, and bold italic versions of Monospaced, Serif, and Sans-Serif typefaces in which each letter is the euro symbol. These fonts can easily be installed in WPDOS6.x as graphic fonts, but all the characters are in the user-defined WP character set (set 12), and are inconvenient to use.
Hewlett-Packard provides bitmap and scalable fonts that contain only the euro symbol. The DOS section of HP's euro page offers a set of LaserJet and DeskJet PCL4 bitmap fonts. The Windows section of the page offers a file with scalable fonts in three formats: TrueType, PostScript Type 1, and LaserJet PCL5 scalable (SFS).
HP's PCL bitmap and scalable fonts are supported by generic WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x drivers available from this site's 5.1 printer drivers and 6.x printer drivers pages; if you use these drivers, you can access the euro character by switching to one of the PCL fonts and selecting WP character 4,72.
In WPDOS6.x, HP's TrueType and PostScript fonts may be installed as graphic fonts using the WP Font Installer. Identical copies of the euro are installed in a wide range of the User Defined symbol set (WP character set 12). Unless you manually use PTR.EXE to edit the WP.DRS file, or create a macro to access one of the euro symbols, this solution may be less convenient to use than the combination of the HP PCL euro fonts and the drivers found on this site.
HP has also posted details of hardware-based euro support in HP printers. These hardware solutions are supported in the new drivers on this site's 5.1 printer drivers and 6.x printer drivers pages.
Lexmark provides a TrueType and Type 1 version of a font that contains different versions of the euro symbol in place of the alphanumeric keyboard characters. These fonts can be installed as graphic fonts in WPDOS6.x. Each of the different versions of the euro symbol is designed to coordinate with one of the standard typefaces found in PCL and PostScript printers, and you can record one or macros that will automatically select one of the different euro symbols. If visual design is important, this may be the best software-based solution, but the font is less convenient to use in WordPerfect than the HP PCL font solution used in combination with the drivers found on this site.
Lexmark has also posted details of hardware-based euro support in Lexmark printers. Lexmark's hardware-based euro support can be used with the HP euro-enabled drivers found on the 5.1 printer drivers and 6.x printer drivers pages of this site.
(If any of the remote links are inaccessible, this site has copies of the Adobe, Hewlett-Packard bitmap, Hewlett-Packard scalable, and Lexmark fonts, but the vendors' web sites provide important information and may have later and better versions of the fonts than the ones here. Except for the Hewlett-Packard bitmap archive, which can be extracted under DOS, these files are self-extracting archives that run only under Windows.)
WordPerfect 5.1 and 6.x for DOS include an option to use custom screen fonts in ordinary text mode. This option is based on the ability of VGA and other graphics cards to load custom fonts for use instead of the screen fonts built in to the cards' hardware. Using the WordPerfect Screen Font Editor (an almost forgotten program dating from 1990), it was possible to modify the WordPerfect 512-character VGA screen font to include the euro symbol.
Important note: After installing the VGA screen font, you can display the euro symbol in WordPerfect's text screen. You will not be able to print the euro (or preview it in WPDOS 6.x) unless you have also adopted solution 1 (in WPDOS 6.x) and either or both of solutions 2 and 3 (in WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x).
To use this screen font, first go to your WordPerfect (5.1 or 6.x) directory and backup your WP512.FRS file (and WP512.CHM file if found). Then download this self-extracting archive (19KB), and copy the enclosed WP512.FRS and WP512.CHM file to your WordPerfect directory.
Then, in WordPerfect 5.1, use Shift-F1/Display. Under Text Screen Type, select IBM VGA (& Compatibles), then 80 x 25 16 Color. Then, under Colors-Fonts-Attributes, select option 5, 512 characters. Your text mode screen will now display 512 characters, including the euro (as WP character 4,72). The print preview screen, however, will display a circle-U character.
Or, in WordPerfect 6.x, use Shift-F1/Display/Text Mode Screen Type-Colors. Select IBM VGA (& Compatibles), then 80 x 25 16 Color. Then, under Color Schemes, select 512chars. Your text mode screen will now display 512 characters, including the euro (as WP character 4,72). The print preview and graphics mode screen will display the euro only if you have also installed the replacement WP Typographic Symbols font available elsewhere on this page.
Note that the VGA screen font will not display when your system in monochrome mode, and will only display when WordPerfect is run in full-screen DOS. (Under Windows, press Alt-Enter to toggle between full-screen DOS and a DOS window.)
Unfinished business: Recent non-Microsoft DOS versions, notably IBM PC DOS 2000 and IBM PC DOS 7.0 with the Year 2000 Fix Pak, support the euro symbol by letting users select a euro-enabled code page and matching VGA screen fonts. If your computer or video card was purchased in Europe (or perhaps in Canada), and its native code page is 850 (not 437, as in hardware sold in the United States), it is possible that you may be able to display the euro in text screens and print it using the drivers and graphic font available elsewhere on this page, together with a WordPerfect user-written code page file that I can supply. If you are interested in this solution, please contact me.
WPDOS 6.x tables, like standalone spreadsheet programs, let you format numbers as "currency" and can automatically apply a currency symbol (like the dollar sign or pound sterling) when you enter a number in a cell. This option is in the Table Format menu, under Number Type. As shipped, WPDOS 6.x supports most major currency symbols, but not the euro. A separate euro table page on this site contains a macro that enables the euro as a currency symbol in tables. You only need this macro if you intend to use the euro as a currency symbol in tables!
If you use WPDOS 5.1, and your printer does not support the LaserJet bitmap soft fonts in solution 3 (but is able to print graphics), you can print and preview the euro symbol by using this WPG1.0-format graphic file (downloadable as a 17KB self-extracting archive). The EURO.WPG file can be used in any version of WordPerfect, but other solutions are easier to use in 6.0 or later.
To use the euro graphic in WPDOS 5.1, place the cursor where you want to print the euro symbol. Press Alt-F9/Figure (or any other choice--it doesn't really matter)/Options, and specify all Border Style settings as None, and all Outside Border Space settings as zero. Exit this menu, then press Alt-F9/Figure (or the same choice you made in the first step)/Create. The Filename should be the filename of the euro graphic (filepath\EURO.WPG); Anchor Type should be Character; Vertical Position should be Bottom; Size should be approximately 0.12 inches to match 12-point type (experiment for best results); Wrap Text Around Box should be set as Yes. The entire series of steps can be saved as a macro.
With this solution, unlike all the other solutions on this page, the euro will not be mapped to WP Character 4,72, or to any other character, but must be inserted as a graphic each time it is used.
Note: An improved version of this graphic was posted on 28 May 2000. If you downloaded the earlier version, please replace it with the improved version, which uses the official version of the euro symbol, converted from a Windows Metafile to a WPG1.0 graphic.
Full support for the euro in WPDOS would require the following, in order of importance:
If anyone can supply me with copies of WP.EXE or WP.FIL that contain any of these changes, I will prepare patch software that will update existing copies without distributing Corel's copyrighted program files.
Home Page Last modified 14 Feb 2001