iPad Rollout tips

Monday, March 11, 2013

it Works - how to convert MS Works files for Mac

I was working at one of my schools today and the Superintendent asked me how to get his collection of Microsoft Works files into some format that he could use - he'd switched from PC to Mac - (good move) but was a bit frustrated at the thought of re-creating files, or losing the information within them.  So with a bit of head scratching I came up with a good solution.. with just a few steps to solve the problem...

First - get yourself a copy of LibreOffice it is free and as a bonus is a pretty capable replacement for the Microsoft Office suite..  Did I mention free?  Some districts aren't buying Office and are using it instead.. but I digress..  Open your .wps (Works) file in LibreOffice, then go to File-Save As and select Microsoft Word 2007/2010 XML (.docx) .  This saves your old .wps file as a nicely formatted modern Microsoft Word document. I was surprised how well the formatting was preserved..

This made me look really smart, and I didn't confess that I sort of stumbled into it. I've fought this problem for years and used to keep an old copy of Works on a  PC just for this.  Much better solution!