Most of us give very little thought to file formats when we create or share files on our Mac. Most files we work with are in standard or widely-used formats and can be opened in several applications already installed on our Mac. But every now and again, you may come across a legacy format that is no longer widely used. One of those formats is WPS, the native file format of Microsoft Works, which itself hasn’t been developed for many years. But if you need to open a WPS file on your Mac, there are several options.
How to open WPS files on a Mac: Microsoft Word
If you have an old version of Microsoft Word on your Mac, you’re in luck. It may open WPS files natively. Here’s how to open a WPS file in Word.
- Right-click on the file in Finder, choose Open With > Microsoft Word.
- Open Microsoft Word, click File > Open, navigate to the WPS file and choose Open.
If Word won’t open the file, try one of the methods below.
How to open WPS files on a Mac: LibreOffice
If you don’t already have Microsoft Word installed on your Mac and you don’t have an Office 365 subscription, the next best option is LibreOffice. LibreOffice is free and open source. So, if you don’t already have it on your Mac, all you have to do is head over to libreoffice.org and download it. Once you’ve done that, follow the steps below to open your WPS file.
- Launch LibreOffice Writer.
- Click on the File menu and choose Open.
- Navigate to the WPS file you want to open and click Open.
How to open WPS files on a Mac: WPS Office
WPS Office is another free office suite. Despite its name, it’s not connected to the WPS file format or Microsoft Works. However, it will open WPS documents. You can download it from wps.com. Once you’ve done that, follow the steps to open your WPS file.
- Launch WPS Office Writer.
- Go to the File menu and choose Open.
- Go to your WPS file, select it, and click Open.
Now that you’ve found your preferred app for opening a WPS file on your Mac, you can set it as the default, so all you have to do to open a WPS file is double-click it.
- Select a WPS file in Finder.
- Right-click on it and choose Get Info (or press Command-I).
- In the Get Info window, go to Open With.
- Choose the application you want to use to open WPS files.
- Click Change All.
- Close the Get Info window.
What to do if you can’t open WPS files on your Mac
If the above options don’t work, check your apps. A bug in your current app version might be preventing it from opening WPS files.
The easiest way to update all the applications on your Mac in one go is to use the Applications tool in CleanMyMac. It scans your Mac, showing you which installed apps have updates available. It then takes just one click to install all the available updates. It can also uninstall any apps you no longer need, remove leftover files from apps that were not uninstalled properly, and flag up installers you haven’t trashed, as well as apps you haven’t used in a long time. Start your free CleanMyMac trial.
If updating apps doesn’t work, you can try uploading your WPS document to an online tool like docs.wps.com. You will need to create an account. Once you’ve done that, click the Product menu, then in the Cloud section, choose WPS 365. Click Free to Use, then Upload to upload your document.
If nothing else works, the final option is to reset launch services — the macOS process that controls how files open.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
- Type this command:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user - Press Return.
- Wait for the command prompt to reappear, then type:
killall Finder - Press Return.
WPS was the file extension used by Microsoft Works. Though that application is no longer around, there are still several ways to open WPS files on your Mac. Choose the option above that works best for you, and if the file doesn’t open, follow the steps in the last section.
