East Carolina University
Department of Psychology
Microsoft Works
Older versions of Microsoft Works (2000, 6.0, and earlier) cannot produce Word .doc files. By default they produce *.wps files, which cannot be read by Word and are not even compatible across different releases of Works unless you install text converters. More recent versions of Works (2001 on) include Word, so they can produce Word *.doc files.
If you have one of the earlier versions of Works, you can
produce rich text font (.rft) files, which can be read by Word, but when
graphics are included these files are so large that I may not accept them in
email.
Microsoft has made available converters that are supposed to
make it possible for Word to read .wps files created by Works. See
http://www.userful.com/support/ms-works for details. I installed on my Word
2000 laptop the converter that is supposed to allow Word to read Works 6.0 .wps
files, but Word still refused to read such files on that computer. I tried to
download the Works 4.x converter, but the link for it on the download page at
Microsoft took me to an information page whose only link led back to the
download page -- in other words, I got into an endless loop between two pages,
neither of which had any link for actually downloading the converter. Thanks a
lot, Billy Gates.
If you have one of the earlier versions of Microsoft Works, my recommendation is
that you just accept the fact that you got ripped off and upgrade to Microsoft
Office or a more recent version of Works, one that does include Word, or install
OpenOffice.
Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch
This page most recently revised on
29. September 2006.