Open WP5 files in your browser
The documents of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, the word processor of the late 1980s. Open one right here, page by page. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your document opens as its pages, with its fonts, pictures and tables.
- Every page • Headers, footers, notes and charts
- Final, Markup or Original • Comments and changes
- Reflow • The text fitted to your screen
- Export • Save as PDF, PNG, JPEG or Markdown
About WP5
WordPerfect 5.0 came out for DOS in 1988 and 5.1 in 1989, and for years 5.1 was what offices, universities and law firms typed in, a blue screen with the function key template beside the keyboard. Its files have their own format, older than the one WordPerfect 6 brought in 1993.
WordPerfect for DOS let you name a file anything, so these documents turn up as .wp5, .wp, .doc, .ltr or with no extension at all, often on old floppy disks and backups. Each starts with the same mark, which is how Filepeek knows one whatever its name.
Filepeek reads the document with libwpd, the open source reader LibreOffice uses, compiled to WebAssembly, and lays out every page with its fonts, tabs, tables, footnotes, headers and footers. Reflow fits the text to your screen, search counts every match, and Export saves it as a PDF, its pages as pictures or its text as Markdown.
WordPerfect 5 document
.wp5 • .wp51
Format
- MIME type
- application/vnd.wordperfect
- Made by
- WordPerfect Corporation, now Corel
- Released
- 1988
Inside the file
- Text
- With WordPerfect's codes for its look
- Pages
- Size, margins, headers and footers
- Characters
- WordPerfect's own sets
- Written by
- WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens WordPerfect 5 files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, whatever their name. On their own, browsers download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open WP5
- WindowsWord and LibreOffice Writer open it
- MacLibreOffice Writer opens it
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a WordPerfect 5.1 file?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek a WP5. It opens as its pages, laid out as WordPerfect printed them.
My file has no extension or ends in .doc. Will it open?
Yes. Filepeek knows a WordPerfect file by its first bytes, so its name doesn't matter.
Can I turn it into a PDF?
Yes. Choose Export, then Save as PDF. For a file to edit, LibreOffice Writer opens WordPerfect 5 files and saves them as DOCX.
Why do some characters look wrong?
WordPerfect 5 kept accented letters, symbols and box drawing in its own character sets. libwpd turns them into Unicode, and a few symbols your fonts lack show as boxes.