Wps Office And Microsoft Office



WPS Office got a 9.0 score, while Microsoft Word has a score of 8.5. Likewise, you may compare their general user satisfaction rating: 100% (WPS Office) against 97% (Microsoft Word). Don’t forget to choose the solution that best addresses your most crucial needs, not the solution with the most robust features. With so many free alternatives to Microsoft Office, it’s no wonder you're browsing your options. WPS is another software with versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. This office suite is free but advertising supported. You can pay $30 per year to get the ads removed.

WPS Office
Developer(s)Kingsoft
Initial release1988; 33 years ago
Stable release
WPS Office for Windows (v.11.2.0.10101) / April 23, 2021; 3 days ago
Written inCodeGear Delphi, C/C++
PlatformMicrosoft Windows, Android, iOS, Linux[1]
Available inChinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese
TypeOffice suite
LicenseProprietary
  • Personal:Freeware
  • Business:Commercial
Websitewps.com

WPS Office (an acronym for Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets,[2] previously known as Kingsoft Office) is an office suite for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux,[1]iOS[3] and Android,[4] developed by Zhuhai-based Chinese software developer Kingsoft. WPS Office is made up of three primary components: WPS Writer, WPS Presentation, and WPS Spreadsheet.[5]

Wps Office And Microsoft Office

The personal basic version is free to use. A fully featured professional-grade version is also available for a subscription fee. WPS Office 2016 was released in 2016.[6] As of 2019, the Linux version is developed and supported by a volunteer community rather than Kingsoft itself.[7]

By 2019, WPS Office reached a number of more than 310 million monthly active users.[8]

The product has had a long history of development in China under the name 'WPS' and 'WPS Office'. For a time, Kingsoft branded the suite as 'KSOffice' in an attempt to gain an international market foothold, but later returned to 'WPS Office'. Since WPS Office 2005 the user interface is similar to that of Microsoft Office products, and supports Microsoft document formats besides native Kingsoft formats.

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

WPS Office was initially known as Super-WPS文字处理系统 (Super-WPS Word Processing System, then known simply as WPS) in 1988 as a word processor that ran on DOS systems and sold by then-Hong KongKingsun COMPUTER CO. LTD.. It was the first Chinese-language word processor designed and developed for the mainland Chinese market[citation needed]. WPS was used from the late 1980s.

Early history[edit]

Faced with competition from Microsoft Office, Kingsoft chief software architect Pak Kwan Kau (求伯君) diverted 4 million Renminbi from his personal account to assist in the development of WPS 97 for Microsoft Windows. In 1997, WPS 97 was released. The next version, WPS 2000, was released two years later. Both products were developed for a 16-bit Windows platform, with the capability of running on 32-bit Windows platforms.

In May 2001, Kingsoft launched a full office suite under the name WPS Office 2001, which contained a word processor together with spreadsheet and presentation applications. With WPS Office 2001, Kingsoft entered the office productivity market in the People's Republic of China.

In 2002, WPS Office 2002 was released, adding an email client to the office suite. WPS Office 2002 aimed to maintain interface compatibility with established office products.

In 2003, WPS Office 2003 was released. The Chinese government made Kingsoft office software the standard for various divisions of the government.

The 2004 incarnation of the office suite, dubbed WPS Office Storm, was released in late 2004. It claimed to offer total backward compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats. Unlike previous versions, WPS Storm was based on OpenOffice.org and was the first WPS Office suite to support operating systems other than Microsoft Windows. Kingsoft collaborated with Intel and IBM to integrate its text-to-text and text-to-speech technology into WPS Office Storm.

In late 2005, WPS Office 2005 was released with a revamped interface and a smaller file size. Besides the Professional edition, a free Simplified Chinese edition was offered for students and home users. A Wine-hosted edition was provided for Linux users of WPS Office Storm.

In 2007, Kingsoft Office 2007 was released. This was the first version that tried to enter international markets, with support for the English and Japanese languages. The native Chinese-language version continued under the name WPS Office.

In 2009, Kingsoft Office 2009 was released. It had increased compatibility with Microsoft Office including support for the newer 2007-version file formats.

In 2010, Kingsoft Office 2010 was released.

In 2011, Kingsoft Office was granted funding from the Chinese government[9] and received further orders from central ministries in China.[10]

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2012 was released in 2011. Kingsoft Office Professional 2012 and Kingsoft Office Standard 2012 were released for sale in February 2012,[11] in addition to Kingsoft Office for Android.[12] The initial release for Android included standard word processor functions such as creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

On 28 March 2012 Kingsoft announced that WPS for Linux was under development. It is the third WPS Linux product, following WPS Storm and WPS 2005. It was developed from scratch, based on the Qt framework, as compatible as possible with its Windows counterpart.

The free and paid versions of Kingsoft Office 2013 were released on 4 June 2013. They consist of three programs: Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentation, which are similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.[13] WPS Office for Linux Alpha 18 Patch 1 was released on 11 June 2015.[1]

2014-present[edit]

On June 6, 2014, all Kingsoft Office products were renamed WPS Office.[14]

On December 16, 2014, WPS Office 2014 for Windows, build 9.1.0.4932, was released as a subscription model for a monthly charge of US$3 for some features. The free version provided basic features and supported Microsoft Office .doc, .xls, and .ppt file formats. Premium paid versions provided full compatibility for Microsoft Office files. Officially only the paid 2014 version supported saving files in .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx formats, but, actually, the free version also supported these formats (as had the 2013 free version).[15]

On June 21, 2016, WPS Office 2016 for Windows became generally available as Freemium software, with no subscription needed for basic features.[16]

On 28 May 2017 Kingsoft tweeted that the Linux version was at a halt,[17] but denied this a few days later, removed the tweet, and issued a further alpha version. Kingsoft also tweeted making reference to making WPS Office for Linux open-source towards the end of 2017 to allow the Linux community to step in and continue maintaining it, but later deleted this tweet too.[18]

WPS Office 2019 was released on May 6, 2019. It introduced new integration and personalized features as well as full support for the PDF format.

Editions[edit]

WPS Office has versions for multiple operating systems. It has editions for:

  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux (Fedora, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Mint, Knoppix) — Originally supports both 32- and 64-bit systems, however support for 32-bit systems stopped as of July 2019.[19]
  • Android
  • iOS

In addition to the above, WPS Office also has a web version.

Versions and subscription model[edit]

WPS Office 2016 is available in Free, Premium, and Professional versions, along with versions for Android and iOS. The free version provides basic features and supports Microsoft Office file formats. Some features, such as printing and mail-merge, can be temporarily accessed only after viewing an advertisement, which WPS Office refers to as sponsored access.[20]

The subscription-based, paid version, called WPS Office 2016 Premium, is available for US$9.99 per 3 months, and makes all features available without viewing advertisements.[21]

A lifetime license for WPS Office 2016 Professional can be purchased for $79.99.[21]

WPS Office licensing
Product NamePriceVersion
WPS Office FreeFree-
WPS PremiumUS$29.99/Year10.2.0.7478
WPS Home & StudentUS$44.99/Year-
WPS Office LicenseUS$44.99/Year-

File format[edit]

According to an April 2017 review of WPS Office 2016 Free v10.2.0.5871 for Windows, the program opens and saves all Microsoft Office document formats (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, etc.), HTML, RTF, XML, and PDF.[22]

  • Text document formats: wps, wpt, doc, dot, docx, dotx, docm, dotm
  • XML document formats: xml, htm, html, mht, mhtm, mhtml
  • Spreadsheet document formats: et, ett, xls, xlsx, xlt, xltx, csv, xlsm, xltm, xlsb, ets
  • Slideshow document formats: ppt, pot, pps, dps, dpt, pptx, potx, ppsx, pptm, potm, ppsm, dpss

See also[edit]

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^ abcCurrently in Alpha state. See 'WPS for Linux A15 is Released'. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  2. ^'What is WPS Office and. wps File Format - Kingsoft Office'. Ksosoft.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
  3. ^'Kingsoft Office for iOS to hit iPhones and iPads'. Kingsoftstor.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  4. ^'Download Kingsoft free office app for Android'. Kingsoftstore.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  5. ^'WPS Office Home Page'. wps.com.
  6. ^'WPS Office Officially Releases WPS 2016 for Windows'. wps.com.
  7. ^'WPS Office for Linux Update Available to Download - OMG! Ubuntu!'. OMG! Ubuntu!. 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  8. ^https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190910005579/en/Kingsoft-Office-Launches-WPS-Office-2020-UK
  9. ^'WPS Office Software: free office software, professional office software'. wps.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  10. ^'Kingsoft WPS Office Receives Further Orders from Central Ministries'. Free Online Library. Kingsoft Office Software Corporation Limited. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  11. ^https://archive.is/20130128080506/http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kingsoft-corporation-released-three-editions-of-kingsoft-office-2012-2012-02-27
  12. ^'Kingsoft Office + PDF - FREE!'. Google Play. Kingsoft Office Software Corporation Limited. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  13. ^'Kingsoft Office 2013 has been released'. Kingsoft Office. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  14. ^'Kingsoft Office Change Name to WPS Office'. Kingsoft Office. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  15. ^'WPS Office for Windows'. WPS Office. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. ^'WPS Office Implements Freemium Version of Software'. wps.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  17. ^Joey Sneddon (28 May 2017). 'Linux Users Shouldn't Expect Further Updates to WPS Office…'. OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  18. ^Joey Sneddon (31 May 2017). 'Kingsoft Say WPS Office for Linux Will Continue To Be Updated After all'. OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  19. ^'Downloads - WPS Office Community'. wps-community.org. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
  20. ^'Why you should take another look at WPS Office Free'. CNet. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  21. ^ ab'Compare WPS Office'. WPS Office. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  22. ^Mike Williams (15 June 2017). 'WPS Office 2016 Free v10.2.0.5871'. Techworld.com. Retrieved 21 July 2017.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to WPS Office.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WPS_Office&oldid=1019911384'

WPS Office is a free and paid alternative to Microsoft Office. It includes support for the three main types of office files: documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. It is available for most major operating systems (Windows, macOS, and Linux), but I am focusing on the Windows release. There are also mobile versions. Let’s take a look and see why WPS Office is the biggest reason you don’t need to spend money on Microsoft Office.

2WPS Office Features
3Final Thoughts on WPS Office

Background info on WPS Office

WPS Office was originally known as Kingsoft Office and is developed by Kingsoft based in Beijing, China. It was first developed in 1988 and remained exclusive to China until 2007 where it was released worldwide for the first time. Another interesting fact is that in 2003 the Chinese government made WPS Office the standard office suite for many of its government divisions.

WPS Office Features

Let’s examine some of the features that make WPS stand out from both Microsoft Office and its competitors.

Wps Office Vs Word

It starts at free

Most people just want to be able to edit and view documents, presentations, and spreadsheets on their computers without having to break the bank. WPS Office has a free version but does offer premium features for a small yearly fee. However, I can safely say that the free version is more than good enough. There are small ads that appear from time to time, but not at a rate that would become annoying and they don’t interfere with your main work area.

Compatibility

One issue with using non-Microsoft Office programs is compatibility. I’ve gone through other suites such as Open Office, LibreOffice, and Apple’s iWork. All of those office suites had issues either in documents or presentations that caused the formatting or content to change when something was added or changed.

Familiarity

For anyone that has worked in Microsoft Office, you will probably be familiar with its unique ribbon interface and where all the options are. Changing software is hard, so the developers at Kingsoft have designed WPS Office to look almost exactly like Microsoft Office. If you’re fast at creating documents or PowerPoint presentations, you will feel more comfortable here than any other non-Microsoft Office software.

With WPS Office, the developers must have worked some magic because I have yet to see any major problems when viewing or editing files. This is the closest I think you can get to not having Microsoft Office but having complete compatibility.

Tabbed Interface

It always puzzled me why Microsoft never implemented a tab system in Office so people could work on multiple things easily instead of having to open up each individual file in its own instance. It’s incredibly inefficient for those that love tabs. I mean come on, we have tabs in our web browsers, it only makes sense to have it in our productive apps.

WPS Office not only implements tabs, but it takes this and runs with it. In WPS Office, you have the choice of having tabs for each kind of file type separately OR a tab mix of all the different file formats. So if you want to have a PowerPoint file open but also click over to a document tab, you can do it. This feature is SO good that I am very tempted to leave Microsoft Office just for this major convenience.

Cloud storage

The folks at Kingsoft must be so confident that you will love WPS Office that they include 1 GB of free cloud storage with each free WPS account. Cloud saving is built directly into the software, so you can choose to save locally or directly into the cloud. Personally, I just prefer using something like Google Drive and for really private stuff, Cryptomator.

Templates

What would an office suite be without some templates to get you started? The free version of WPS Office does have some templates, some being useful and others being downright bizarre. (Who thought having a resume template with an eagle or cute deer was the way to go?)

Having said that, there are plenty of free templates to choose from and some excellent ones if you’re a premium member.

Small QOL improvements

While I can’t note every single difference or feature improvement, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at some of the useful improvements Kingsoft made to their office suite.

One example that stuck out to me was the “eye protection” mode in WPS Writer. If you’re always looking at a white screen, it probably isn’t very good for your eyes. Clicking the eye protection mode turns the white background into a less jarring green color. Whether you think you would use this or not, it’s this kind of consideration that makes me appreciate WPS Office.

In the presentation software, there is an option to insert a new blank slide when you hover the cursor between two slides. This saves you the right click or keyboard shortcut you would need to do in Microsoft Office.

Final Thoughts on WPS Office

I don’t see enough people talking about WPS Office online. Most people will recommend LibreOffice as the best free office suite and I disagree. Yes LibreOffice may be more “original”, but I believe most people just want something that works with no problems.

WPS Office has everything you need and none of the compatibility issues. It has some great features and even some things that surpass Microsoft Office in some ways. It’s available for most platforms, so give it a try and let me know what you think.

Link: Download it!

What Is Wps Office

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