Microsoft Works - File Format Compatibility

File Format Compatibility

Microsoft makes file format converter filters for Microsoft Word for opening and saving to Works Word Processor format. Microsoft Office Excel can import newer Works Spreadsheets because the newer Works Spreadsheet also uses the Excel format but with a different extension (*.xlr). There is an import filter for older Works 2.0 spreadsheet format (*.wks); however it may be disabled in the registry by newer Microsoft Office Service packs. As far as Works Spreadsheet 3.x/4.x/2000 (*.wks) and Works database (any version of *.wdb) files are concerned, Microsoft does not provide an import filter for Excel or Access. There are third party converters available for converting these filetypes to Excel spreadsheets: For database files (*.wdb) there is also a donateware utility; for spreadsheet (*.wks) and database (*.wdb) files a commercial solution is available.

A general C++ library, abandoned in 2007, which has been experimentally published as wps_test, works for extracting text from many different Microsoft Works versions' documents with rudimentary formatting. It was later published as "libwps". As of February 2011, no mainstream versions of OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, or KWord have included it for various reasons. OpenOffice.org has not included it because of restrictions with the Joint Copyright Assignment (JCA), but OpenOffice.org variants such as OxygenOffice, Go-oo, LibreOffice and NeoOffice have included libwps. Also, libwps provides a command line converter. A commercially-available solution for converting to and from Microsoft Works files on the Macintosh platform is the MacLinkPlus product from DataViz. Free online conversion services are also available. Microsoft Works uses structured storage as a container format for its data. An iFilter for Works file formats to be indexed and searched is not yet available.