Developer(s) | Kingsoft |
---|---|
Initial release | 1988; 33 years ago |
Stable release | WPS Office for Windows (v.11.2.0.10101) / April 23, 2021; 3 days ago |
Written in | CodeGear Delphi, C/C++ |
Platform | Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, Linux[1] |
Available in | Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese |
Type | Office suite |
License | Proprietary
|
Website | wps.com |
As a complete office suite that combines powerful office tools with a unique and intuitive UI design, WPS Office allows users to easily create, edit, read and share documents, making work easier, more efficient, and enjoyable. Free & Ultra-light Office for Windows released! WPS Office creates a whole new office environment.
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]
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] Proxima nova light font free download mac.
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]
Product Name | Price | Version |
---|---|---|
WPS Office Free | Free | - |
WPS Premium | US$29.99/Year | 10.2.0.7478 |
WPS Home & Student | US$44.99/Year | - |
WPS Office License | US$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]
- ^ abcCurrently in Alpha state. See 'WPS for Linux A15 is Released'. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
- ^'What is WPS Office and. wps File Format - Kingsoft Office'. Ksosoft.com. Retrieved 2014-08-19.
- ^'Kingsoft Office for iOS to hit iPhones and iPads'. Kingsoftstor.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^'Download Kingsoft free office app for Android'. Kingsoftstore.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^'WPS Office Home Page'. wps.com.
- ^'WPS Office Officially Releases WPS 2016 for Windows'. wps.com.
- ^'WPS Office for Linux Update Available to Download - OMG! Ubuntu!'. OMG! Ubuntu!. 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
- ^https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190910005579/en/Kingsoft-Office-Launches-WPS-Office-2020-UK
- ^'WPS Office Software: free office software, professional office software'. wps.com. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^'Kingsoft WPS Office Receives Further Orders from Central Ministries'. Free Online Library. Kingsoft Office Software Corporation Limited. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^https://archive.is/20130128080506/http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kingsoft-corporation-released-three-editions-of-kingsoft-office-2012-2012-02-27
- ^'Kingsoft Office + PDF - FREE!'. Google Play. Kingsoft Office Software Corporation Limited. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ^'Kingsoft Office 2013 has been released'. Kingsoft Office. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
- ^'Kingsoft Office Change Name to WPS Office'. Kingsoft Office. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^'WPS Office for Windows'. WPS Office. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^'WPS Office Implements Freemium Version of Software'. wps.com. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
- ^Joey Sneddon (28 May 2017). 'Linux Users Shouldn't Expect Further Updates to WPS Office…'. OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
- ^Joey Sneddon (31 May 2017). 'Kingsoft Say WPS Office for Linux Will Continue To Be Updated After all'. OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
- ^'Downloads - WPS Office Community'. wps-community.org. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
- ^'Why you should take another look at WPS Office Free'. CNet. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
- ^ ab'Compare WPS Office'. WPS Office. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
- ^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. |
Does Wps Office Have Outlook
Office productivity suites are every office’s primary and non-negotiable requirement. Resultingly, a great number of Software companies tried to create awesome office suites to capture this vast market but most of them failed in competition with Microsoft Office.
NOTE: If you are looking for a quick advice, Go straight to VERDICT at the end of the article.
WPS Office, on the other hand, isn’t among those suites. WPS Office has been in the market since 1988 but only took a solid stand in 2000. WPS Office comes loaded with features to simplify your daily office activities. In this WPS Office review, we will dig deeper into each and every aspect of this software and evaluate how good WPS Office really is and if it is a worthy Microsoft Office Alternative.
Before we dive into it, here is a small guide to help you choose a suitable office suite for yourself.
Evaluating WPS Office:
1. Pricing:
Pricing is our first basis of evaluation for WPS Office. In this part of WPS Office review, we will be looking at the price at which the WPS Office is offered and will also compare it with its worthy counterpart. WPS Office is available in three different packages: WPS Free (Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS, and Linux) WPS License (Windows Only): $89.25 for Lifetime Duck life 2adcock games by: austin adcock. WPS Premium (Windows, Android, iOS, or MacOS): 1 Year: $29.99 (1 Person) 6 Months: $18.99 (1 Person) 1 Year: $39.99 (5 Persons) Note: Offers a 7-Day Free Trial. To compare if WPS Office is worth the price, let’s compare it with it biggest competitor, Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office also comes in multiple variants. Microsoft Office Free (For Android only) Disease dmg eq. Microsoft Office Lifetime License (Windows, MacOS) Microsoft Office Home & Student: $149.99 Microsoft Office Professional: $499.99 Microsoft Office Subscription (Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android) Microsoft 365 Personal: $69.99/year (1 Person) Microsoft 365 Family: $99.99/year (Up to 6 Persons) |
Note: There are a few other business plans offered by Microsoft Office and of course they are a bit steep in price. To check them out, click: Microsoft Office Business
In the price evaluation above, we saw that WPS Office has a free version available for all the platforms be it Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. On the other hand, Microsoft only has the free Office for Android mobiles. Here WPS Office seem to be ahead in the game.
While the yearly subscription of WPS Office comes at $29.99/year for 1 user, Microsoft Office 365 is priced at $69.99/year for 1 user. Though WPS Office is cheaper, if you want a family version for more than 1 person or device, WPS Office has a plan for 5 devices at just $39.99/year instead of $99.99/year for 6 persons in MS Office, the price difference is considerable.
In one time licensing, WPS Office is priced way cheaper than what Microsoft Office is priced at. Where one-time licensing of WPS Office is available at $89.99, Microsoft Office begins at $149.99 and goes to a whopping $499.99. (Features available with the Microsoft Office Home & Student are available in WPS Office Free Version)
Looking at the figures above, WPS Office is a really cheap and worthy solution for the price it is offered at. If you are an average user and want an Office suite to take you through your daily tasks, you don’t have to spend a dime on neither the WPS Office nor on anything else. Even if you are looking for an office suite for the whole family, WPS Office suite won’t disappoint you because Free x 5 = Free. Also, the family plan is $60 cheaper in WPS Office.
2. Tools and Features Offered by WPS Office:
In this section of WPS Office Review, we will evaluate the tools offered by WPS Office and are they enough to get you through.
Free Version | WPS Premium | WPS License | |
---|---|---|---|
Word Processor | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Spreadsheet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Presentation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PDF Reader | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Edit Text in PDF | No | Yes | Yes |
PDF to Word/Excel/PPT | No | Yes | Yes |
Export PDF in Batch | No | Yes | Yes |
Picture to PDF | No | Yes | Yes |
Picture to Text (OCR) | No | No | Yes |
File Split/File Merge | No | Yes | Yes |
Cloud Storage | 1 GB | No | 20 GB |
Insert/Extract Pages from PDF | No | Yes | Yes |
Insert and Remove Watermark in PDF | No | Yes | Yes |
Change PDF Page Order | No | Yes | Yes |
Add Color or Picture in PDF | No | Yes | Yes |
Files Repair | No | No | Yes |
Automatic Document Backup | No | Yes | Yes |
Price | FREE | $18.99 – $29.99 | $89.99 |
This is a pretty comprehensive list of what WPS Office has to offer. As you can see, WPS Office free version holds the capability to create Word Document, Spreadsheets, Presentation with amazing graphics, and a dedicated PDF Reader. (More than what Microsoft Office offers at $149.99)
WPS Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentations have a familiar minimalistic design and layout which look polished and pleasing. These apps have all the options and functionality that a person writing a document, a letter, a blog, a person creating companies balance sheet, or preparing a school or office presentation would need. These apps feature fair amount of customization options similar to what would you get in their Microsoft counterparts.
Wps Office Email
There are a number of templates available which can be used to easily create Resumes, Write letters, create posters, brochures, checklists, project reports, invoices, annual reports, work reports, albums, infographics, etc. (WPS Office has a premium subscription named Templates that users have to subscribe to in order to gain access to these templates for the users who are professional designers and often design things for others or for blogs.)
But what kind of tool review would it be if we don’t compare the tools available with WPS Office with the tools available with its competitor.
Tools Offered by WPS Office vs Tools Offered by Microsoft Office
wps office free | WPS Office license | WPS Premium | Ms office license | ms office 365 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
price | FREE | $89.99 for Lifetime | $29.99/Year | $149.99 | $69.99/year & $99.99/year |
word processor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Spreadsheets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
presentations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
pdf reader | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
pdf to word/xls/ppt | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Edit pdf text/sign pdf | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
cloud storage | 1 GB | No | 20 GB | No | 1 TB |
extract text from word | No | No | Yes | No | No |
file repair | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Mailing app | No | No | No | No | Outlook |
Publishing | No | No | No | No | Publisher(PC Only) |
Database management | No | No | No | No | Yes |
As can be seen in the table above, WPS Office has features which aren’t even available with the industry best office suites. Hence, if you are looking for a tool to replace your day to day word processor, spreadsheet creator, or presentation maker, you should definitely go with WPS Office Free version. Also, if you are an advanced user and require much more tools, WPS has a tons of different features to offer. As you may have noticed, the features offered by $149.99 Microsoft Office Licensed and $69.99/year Microsoft 365 are exactly similar to what WPS Office has to offer for FREE except that Office 365 comes with Outlook, Access, and Publisher. I think anyone would be glad to dump Outlook if you could save $69.99/year, I would.
3. File Compatibility:
In WPS Office review, it’s time to check its compatibility with the files created on the other suites. I may sound like a WPS Office Fanboy, but when it comes to File Compatibility, WPS Office is second to none. WPS Office is compatible with files created on Microsoft Office, Google Suite, Adobe PDF, and Open Office.
Formats supported by WPS Office: doc, docx, dotm, docm, xls, xlsx, xlt, xltx, ppt, pptx, rtf, csv, xml, wpt, dot, dotx, et, ett, pot, dps, dpt, potx, ppsx, and pdf.
LibreOffice Suite supports even more file formats than what WPS Office supports. On the other hand, other competitors like Microsoft Office stand nowhere in file compatibility.
Hence, if you are looking for an Office Suite with wide range of compatiblity with other Office suites, WPS Office is a great tool to have as it supports most of the commonly used Office suites like MS Office, G-Suite, Open Office, and more.
4. User-Interface:
As we discussed earlier, the interface offered by WPS Office is heavily inspired by its famous counterpart. As a result, the learning curve isn’t too steep and new users would have an easy time getting a hold of WPS Office interface. The layout and the place where features are listed is fairly simple to access. The ribbon style is pretty familiar too.
Its competitors like LibreOffice have a bit outdated interface which may not be fun to use for many users. However, Microsoft office is the best in the game in this field and WPS Office can’t beat it either. But WPS Office’s interface is the closest you can get to MS Office’s interface.
To sum it up, User-Interface offered by WPS Office is second to none and the best you can get in this price and hence, user-interface shouldn’t be a concern to anyone thinking of buying WPS Office.
5. Collaboration:
Collaboration features haven’t gone unnoticed from WPS Office too. For Collaboration, WPS office features WPS Cloud and WPS Online document creator where you can simply head to the WPS website and login to create online document. Also, you can share the file in real-time to collaborate of any number of people you like to get the desired result.
Although the online suite doesn’t offer as much features and function as the offline suite, you can always download the file to your PC to customize it better after all, its free.
Competitors like Google Suite also offer a similar feature to create online documents and collaborate in real-time. However, Google Suite doesn’t have any option to download the file to PC to customize it for better because of the absence of any offline suite.
VERDICT:
In the end of our WPS Office review, by taking all the aspects of WPS Office into account, we can surely say that WPS Office is an amazing tool and is worth every penny you are charged for it i.e. if you go for the premium version. It isn’t just another Microsoft Office alternative but a worthy tool in itself. The clean and minimalistic design doesn’t fail to impress at any point in time. Users have the access to all the features they would require for free. Looking at the tools, file compatibility, User-interface, ease of collaboration, and pricing, I would suggest everyone to give it a try for a week or two if you are going to buy a complete suite anyways, the chances are you will like it. If you don’t, No regrets, you don’t lose a penny.
So, this was my WPS Office review. Do let us know how did you like WPS Office if you tried it, we love hearing from you.
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