- Nov 03, 2020 File format reference for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint If it is not in MS Word file format, the recipients using macOS may not be feasible to open this file directly. However, the recipients using Windows may not be affected and then can open the WPS file in MS Word.
- WPS Office was released in 2016 by Chinese software developer Kingsoft. It is an office suite that is available for Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. The suite is available in English, French.
I’m Jordan Schneider, Beijing-based host of the ChinaEconTalk Podcast. In this newsletter, I translate and analyze articles from Chinese media about tech, business, and political economy.
I’m opting for a tipping model to support this newsletter which you can sign up for on Substack or Patreon. The money will go toward compensating ChinaEconTalk contributors who represent the next generation of China analysts.
This week’s podcast with Weijian Shan, chairman and founder of PAG Group, was special. Growing up in the Cultural Revolution, he was sent from Beijing to the Gobi desert where he spent six years planting potatoes. He was one of the first Chinese nationals to move to the US for school, ultimately studying with Janet Yellen and working as a professor at Wharton before moving back to Asia to work in private equity. Shan reflected on the Cultural Revolution and its legacy, US-China relations, and the Hong Kong protests.
My following column on Microsoft vs Kingsoft first appeared in Technode.
WPS Office 11-1000+ users Firms that are looking for free Microsoft Office alternatives, who want small sized office application and to create top quality documents without worrying about inhibiting the performance of their PC.
In late November, 30 years after its founding, Kingsoft’s software business hit the Shanghai STAR market (a NASDAQ spinoff). It raised $640 million and currently trades at a $10 billion valuation. Westerners—and even many Chinese familiar with its products—regard it as simply another knockoff Chinese firm whose WPS Office is little more than an off-brand Microsoft Office suite.
But an anonymous Chinese blogger tells us why Kingsoft’s story matters. Sister Dan Dan writes in an article on “The hidden history of WPS’s years on the market,” that Kingsoft: “because of WPS, they forced Microsoft to really fight not only for China but also the global market of office products.” Kingsoft’s early missteps in its fight with Microsoft are one of the great what-ifs in Chinese tech history, and its rebound is nothing short of remarkable.
“There is a company that fully deserves to be known as the Whampoa Military Academy of the Chinese programmer,” she writes, referring to the legendary academy that trained the first commanders of the Red Army.
WPS’ origin is the stuff of legend. In 1988, Qiu Bojun spent over a year in seclusion, writing 1.25 million lines of code to singlehandedly create the first Chinese language word processor. This DOS-based software by 1993 had 95% of China’s market share.
Yet, as Windows 3.0 hit the market, Kingsoft saw the writing on the wall. Realizing that Chinese users would soon be shifting from DOS to Windows, Kingsoft made a big bet on a new product called Pangu, putting all their R&D into an office management software that took three years to develop and only sold 6,000 copies. In the meantime, Microsoft invested its energy in a Word feature set that surpassed WPS’ offerings.
In 1996, Kingsoft signed a deal with Microsoft to create Word and WPS interoperability. But in fact, this agreement just make it easier for Chinese consumers to switch. By the time Windows 97 was released, Microsoft was able to easily persuade users to switch to using the word processor already installed on their new hard drives.
While at this time the Chinese government began mass purchases of WPS, two factors began cutting into Kingsoft’s revenue. First, a price war between Kingsoft and Microsoft. Next, piracy kicked up on the mainland. Even though Microsoft was aggressively fighting piracy in the rest of the world, it decided that Microsoft’s global scale meant it could afford the short-term loss in revenue in China to gain market share.
According to a Fortune Magazine history of the conflict, “Gates argued at the time that…if [the Chinese] were going to pirate anybody's software he'd certainly prefer it be Microsoft's.”
In 2002, Microsoft, confident in its market share, cut the legs out from under WPS by canceling their interoperability agreement. By that time, Microsoft had won friends in high places through strong government relations and a superior product. They offered the Chinese government the ability to peek into Microsoft’s source code and add their own cryptography. Microsoft was also able to engender goodwill by opening a Beijing research lab and putting money into local software startups.
These efforts and the extra billions Microsoft had to invest allowed it to take market share and bring Kingsoft to its knees. According to Fortune then-Premier Hu Jintao told Bill Gates when he visited Redmond in 2006: “You are a friend to the Chinese people, and I am a friend of Microsoft. Every morning I go to my office and use your software.'
Yet in late 2008, Confident in their place in the market and eager to take advantage of Chinese users’ new spending power, a new Windows anti-piracy push renewed domestic security concerns.
Sister Dan Dan tells the story:
On October 20, 2008, Microsoft announced the launch of two 'important notices': the Windows Genuine Advantage Program Notice and Office Genuine Advantage Program Notice.
If your computer had a pirated version of Windows installed, then your computer background would turn black every one hour.
Users who had pirated Office installed saw their software permanently visually marked.
This move sparked discussions throughout society. On the one hand, it was a legitimate action by Microsoft to defend its rights, and we cannot refute that. Moreover, China at that time had just stepped up its efforts to protect intellectual property rights and was cracking down on piracy.
However, Microsoft's decision to punish users rather than piracy producers and sellers still makes many resentful.
What's more, Microsoft showed that it could intrude into the user's system without the user's consent and carry out interference and sabotage actions.
Users who have become accustomed to Word are like lambs that have been fed by Microsoft, who were getting fat until this moment when they were taken to the slaughter.
This has also sounded the alarm bell for information security in our country.
Many large state-owned enterprises and government departments at the time were loyal users of Microsoft.
No one could guarantee that Microsoft wouldn’t invade the system, perform interference and sabotage activities, and do they wanted with user data.
And such concerns are not groundless.
According to Snowden ’s disclosures of the US “Prism” project, multiple US government agencies have asked Microsoft, Facebook and other companies for user data.
Computer expert Ni Guangnan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stepped forward to publicly state that 'China was held hostage by Microsoft.'
However, if no independently controllable software exists, then there could never be real information security.
This moment is reminiscent of the 2018 ZTE ‘Sputnik Moment.’
At this point, WPS began to turn things around. As Sister Dan Dan writes, an RMB 5 million (about $710,000) contract from the government’s 863 Plan helped stave off bankruptcy. Future Xiaomi founder Lei Jun led Kingsoft’s effort to remake WPS from scratch for users now used to Word. The launch of WPS2005, and subsequent decision to make WPS’ personal version available for free, helped the product find its feet. The ability to beat Microsoft on price and nearly match it on features made WPS competitive for cost-conscious firms and government offices.
In 2011, Lei Jun, who while heading Xiaomi also worked as chairman of Kingsoft, pushed the firm to invest in mobile office software. Thanks to this decision, WPS beat Microsoft Office to market on Android phones by four years. They now boast a total global MAU of 310 million with government contracts in over thirty provinces and 69 Fortune 500 Chinese firms. With recent Chinese policy aiming to excise foreign software from all state offices, expect those contracts to only increase (farewell Windows 10: Chinese Government Edition).
WPS also now has a considerable overseas presence. 80 million overseas MAUs are mostly concentrated in Southeast Asia, where the firm can leverage Xiaomi smartphones’ popularity. Other major tech firms have since followed WPS’ lead—for instance Bytedance’s new app Lark, which aims to challenge Slack overseas.
But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Just as the Chinese government fears the information security issues inherent with foreign software, so will international firms take precautions with Chinese products. The same security questions that plague Huawei abroad will at some point confront WPS and Lark.
Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: Recover & Repair Files • Proven solutions
Time and again, we come across the WPS file while working on the Windows Operating System. However, not many of us are aware of what these files really are. There are many users who have associated themselves with the Windows Operating System for long without caring to garner any knowledge about the WPS file. In the given article, we shall discuss all the possible methods that can prove to be useful when it comes to accessing a WPS file in Microsoft Word. For the ones who are lacking knowledge about the WPS file, we shall first try and understand what the WPS file really is. Following this, we shall list out the methodologies that can prove to be useful when it comes to opening the WPS file in Microsoft Word.
Part 1 What is the WPS File?
To begin with, one needs to understand that the WPS file format is quite similar to the DOC format. However, while being a text document, it is created with the Microsoft Works Word Processor and doesn’t come with the advanced formatting options and macros that are otherwise included in the Word document. Users should note that while most versions of Microsoft Word can open a WPS file along with Microsoft Publisher, but the format has been discontinued since 2006, and further replaced with the standard MS Word DOC format.
So, what is the use of the WPS file then? Users must note that the WPS file format is used by Microsoft Works Word Processor Files. The files with the WPS extension contain word processing documents that have been created by the Microsoft Works software suite. While containing richly formatted text along with images, the WPS file format also includes clipart and tables. There is the inclusion of a C++ library, which is called ‘libwps’ and it allows reading and writing of WPS documents. The library also allows for the functioning of applications that include ‘OxygenOffice’ and ‘NeoOffice’ that allow for the opening and editing of a WPS file.
Part 2 How do I open the WPS File in Word?
For the users looking to access their WPS file in Word, the methodologies have been discussed in this section. In order to assist users, Microsoft offers a free file which is named as ‘WorksConv.exe’ and is compatible with Microsoft Word 2000 and later variants. This helps you access all the WPS file formats, which Microsoft Works 6.0-9.0 documents. For the ones who are looking to access a primitive version of the WPS file, which could include a WPS file that has been created with Microsoft Works 4.0 or 4.5, there is another free file being offered by Microsoft called the ‘Wks4Converter_en-US.msi’ file which has ease of compatibility with Microsoft Word 2000 or later.
We recommend that users install both the above-listed files if they are looking to open a WPS file in Microsoft Word. However, an additional note for our users is that Microsoft Word 2013 is capable of opening Microsoft Works 6.0 to 9.0. However, the default feature in Word 2013 doesn’t mean that one doesn’t have to download and install the ‘Wks4Converter_en_US.msi’ file, especially if they are looking to open Microsoft Works 4.0 or 4.5 documents.
So, here are the steps to access a WPS file in Word:
1) Ensure that above-listed files have been downloaded;
2) Start the process by closing all the Microsoft Word Windows that were previously opened;
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3) You are now required to double-click the ‘WorksConv.exe’ file and follow the prompts in order to complete the installation. Similarly, double-tap the ‘Wks4Converter_en-US.msi’ file, and following its prompts, complete its installation too.
4) Once both the files have been downloaded with the help of prompts, you can open Microsoft Word in order to open the WPS file.
5) Once you are within the MS-Word interface, tap ‘File’, and then tap on ‘Open’. If you do not come across a File Menu, click the Microsoft Office button that appears in the top left of the Word Window, and then tap on Open.
6) Please note that the users working on Word 2013 are required to select ‘Computer’, followed by ‘Browse’ after starting by clicking on the ‘Open’ option.
7) Once you have accessed the Open Window, within the ‘File of Type’ drop-down menu, or the unlabeled drop-down menu that appears next to the File name text field, you should come across multiple options; ‘Works 4.x (.wps), ‘Works 6-9 Document (.wps), or ‘Works 6.0 (.wps).
8) Users are then required to choose the file version which they are trying to open in Word. For the ones who aren’t really sure of the version of their WPS file, it’s best to go for the ‘Works 6-9 Document (.wps) option.
9 )The final step includes browsing to the location of the WPS file you are looking to open, selecting the file, and tapping the ‘Open’ button.
While users can successfully open the WPS file, there is also the option to save all the hassle by simply converting the opened WPS file into a Word File. The steps for the same have been listed below.
1) Once the WPS file has been opened and modified; simply click File and tap ‘Save As’. For the ones who do not come across a File Menu, you can tap the ‘Microsoft Office Button’ that appears in the top left of the Word Window, and then tap on ‘Save As’.
2) Once you have accessed the ‘Save As’ window, choose the location where you wish to save the file.
3) Rename the file as per your choice, and while saving the WPS file, make sure to select ‘Microsoft Word (.doc) format from the drop-down menu.
4) Tap on ‘OK’ or ‘Save’ when you are done with the saving.
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Accessing a WPS file in Word is not difficult if one has the correct methodology to follow. Once the required files have been installed, you can repeatedly open your WPS file in Word without any hassle. However, if you are looking to open the WPS file in different locations or systems, we recommend that you go for the conversion of the WPS file to Word file using the above steps.
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