[NTLUG:Discuss] open a .wps file

[Robert Pearson]

On 6/24/07, jm <jm5379 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >From the Google search for "open wps open office".
> > One way to do it:
> > "Re: How to open a .wps (Microsoft Works Document) in OpenOffice.org 2.0."
> > <<http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@documentation.openoffice.org/msg01154.html>>
> >
> >     How to open a .wps (Microsoft Works Document) in
> >     OpenOffice.org 2.0.
> >
> >     After hours of tinkering, here is a free workaround to
> >     get .wps files into OpenOffice.org 2.0
> >     This has been tested and is working on Windows XP and
> >     2000 with OpenOffice.org 2.0.
> >     Please verify and report here any success or problems
> >     with other windows versions.
> >
> >     Step 1. Download and install the free as of 7/15/06
> >     "Word Viewer 2003" from Microsoft
> >     at the following link:
> >
> >
> >     http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B9E11E83-
> > F51B-4977-B572-8C042DF802C1&displaylang=EN
> >
> >     Step 2. Download and install the free as of 7/15/06
> >     "Works 6.0 Converter for Works and Word Users"
> >     from Microsoft at the following link:
> >
> >     http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=B9E11E83-
> > F51B-4977-B572-8C042DF802C1&displaylang=EN
> >
> >     After Installing both, Launch Word Viewer 2003, Start
> >     -> programs ->
> >     Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003. An open dialog
> >     appears.
> >     At the bottom of this dialog make sure the "Files of
> >     type" is set to "All Files(*.*)".
> > Now browse to your .wps file, select it and click open.
> > A warning dialog will appear, if you trust this file etc.,
> > click yes and like magic your .wps is now open!.
> >     Select all -> edit copy ->. Now open OpenOffice.org
> >     2.0 writer and do edit paste.
> >     You should now be looking at your doc in
> >     OpenOffice.org 2.0.
> >     Choose Save as from the file menu and save your
> >     document to your preferred format.
> >     You are now good to go!
>
> i'll try to answer al the subsequent responses at once...
>
> unfortunately, the article referred to here appears to be specific to
> the windows environment.  additionally, the two links are actually
> identical, referring to the same software download, which i've already
> tried w/o success.

All Windows is correct. I have two Windows 2000 installations.
One of them has OpenOffice 2.2 installed on it. It was free, real easy
and quick to install.
I get a great deal of pleasure from using the Windows OpenOffice 2.2
instead of Windows Office on Windows.
For years I kept a copy of Works 4.0 around to load and convert Works
files on Windows.
Somewhere around Works 5.0 Microsoft drastically changed Works so
Works 4.0 couldn't read the files and there was no upgrade path to
Works 5.0+, IIRC.
After that point I had to use the method above and copy the Works file
Content into a text file for transport to Linux. Only the text
remains. All RTF-like features are lost.
It is better than nothing.
Since I own Word I can't remember why I used the Word Viewer instead of Word.
Maybe Word won't read Works .wps?
Both my installations are down while the genius is at work changing
configurations so I can't test this.
In your case you can open the text file in OpenOffice 2.2 on Windows,
format it to your requirements and save it out as any number of
formats; multiple Microsoft Word formats, OpenOffice doc, PDF, etc.

> for the person who was able to successfully load a .wps file into ooo
> - i tried that with the most recent version i have available (2.2 in
> ubuntu 7.04 - a Very nice environment, btw) but all i got was a small
> box similar to a placeholder for a non-printable ascii character, so
> no joy there, either.

This would be the best, easiest and ideal way.
Perhaps his OpenOffice 2.2 is configured slightly different than yours?

> as for those who haven't (or have) seen .wps out in the real world,
> they sadly do exist since works appears to be the poor man's Word
> option.  as mentioned earlier, these are due to the clients my wife
> deals with - she's a flute teacher and everyone she deals with are
> individuals, not businesses.  she currently is administering a summer
> camp for flute students and the associated .wps files being sent to us
> is quite numerous, hence the need for something better than asking
> those who send the files to send in a different format - sometimes
> akin to asking a neanderthal to build a particle accelerator.
>
> hopefully a different option is available that hasn't been mentioned
> yet, but thanks to all for the suggestions so far.
>
> joe