# How do I convert a .wps to a .doc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126 "2006-02-25T23:37:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/1 "2006-02-25T23:37:11Z")
This is driving me insane. Yes, I checked the computer problem thread. I have Microsoft Works 8.0. I saved the document (my resume) as a .doc file and Monster still won’t let me upload it, it says its a rich text file. Google was no help, it only led me to pricey converter apps. I need to be able to email a simple .doc file to potential employers but I don’t have Word, only wordpad. Help! ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/2 "2006-02-25T23:42:50Z")
One obvious solution, i guess, is to have someone with Word open the document and save it again. That might work. If your document doesn’t contain any secret or sensitive information, i’d be happy to try it for you. Another possibility is to download and install [Open Office](http://www.openoffice.org/). It will open Word documents, and will save as Word documents also, so it might be able to save your file in a format that Monster will recognize. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/3 "2006-02-26T00:18:23Z")
Have you tried this: Save your Woks file as File Type: Rich Text Format Open the file in Wordpad Save again as file type: Microsoft Word Document ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/4 "2006-02-26T00:29:21Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > This is driving me insane. Yes, I checked the computer problem thread. I have Microsoft Works 8.0. I saved the document (my resume) as a .doc file and Monster still won’t let me upload it, it says its a rich text file. Google was no help, it only led me to pricey converter apps. I need to be able to email a simple .doc file to potential employers but I don’t have Word, only wordpad. Help! IIRC, Wordpad saves files in Word format, though it may not give you the formatting options you need. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/5 "2006-02-26T00:55:50Z")
Open office seems to have worked. Thanks **mhendo**! ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/6 "2006-02-26T01:00:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > IIRC, Wordpad saves files in Word format, though it may not give you the formatting options you need. This depends on the version of wordpad and the version of windows I believe. Older versions saved in a word format… I think word 6.0 or something, which was the version before office 97 The version of wordpad that comes with my windows XP, on the other hand, will work with RTF and txt formats - no others. Probably they decided not to keep supporting newer msword formats because it would take development time for the free product, and to get more people to shell out for office. 😉 I would think that works 8.0 would have a save to msword format function buried in there somewhere, though. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/7 "2006-02-26T02:36:28Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > This depends on the version of wordpad and the version of windows I believe. Older versions saved in a word format… I think word 6.0 or something, which was the version before office 97 > > The version of wordpad that comes with my windows XP, on the other hand, will work with RTF and txt formats - no others. Probably they decided not to keep supporting newer msword formats because it would take development time for the free product, and to get more people to shell out for office. 😉 > > I would think that works 8.0 would have a save to msword format function buried in there somewhere, though. What you say definitely describes my configuration, with the exception of being able to find a .doc converter. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/8 "2006-02-26T03:42:44Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > This is driving me insane. Yes, I checked the computer problem thread. I have Microsoft Works 8.0. I saved the document (my resume) as a .doc file and Monster still won’t let me upload it, it says its a rich text file. Google was no help, it only led me to pricey converter apps. I need to be able to email a simple .doc file to potential employers but I don’t have Word, only wordpad. Help! Okay, sorry, I just figured out what you were talking about by experimenting with my own version of works 8.0 It looks like their ‘save as word .doc’ option is just creating an rtf file and slapping a .doc extension on it instead of .rtf This is something that monster is, for some reason, testing for. I’m not quite sure WHY they want to exclude job applicants that are using msworks (as opposed to those that are using openOffice) but that’s the effect of what they’re doing. Potential employers would not really notice the issue, I bet, because MSword will seamlessly open rich text files. Even if they had the .rtf extension mapped to some other program, when they open up your ‘fake .doc’ resume, it’ll get routed to msword because of the extension, and word will be able to figure out what format it’s really in and open it. Glad that you were able to sort out the monster thing with openOffice. But I doubt this would have been an issue for anyone but them. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/9 "2006-02-26T04:02:54Z")
This is irrelevant, since **dnooman** was able to use OpenOffice, but doesn’t Monster have an option to copy and paste one’s resume onto their form? ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/10 "2006-02-26T06:42:58Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > This is irrelevant, since **dnooman** was able to use OpenOffice, but doesn’t Monster have an option to copy and paste one’s resume onto their form? Not that I’ve seen. I could do a dirty copy and paste using another window and inputting data into their form, but that’s not my goal. Monster needs a vanilla .doc format in order to upload. This turns out to be a very ineffective method of resume submission since you can’t even edit your word doc once it’s been uploaded. The main reason I wanted a generic .doc format, is that many people that accept emailed resumes like them in simple .doc (word) format. This includes the person that happens to be reviewing my resume. Thanks for the help everyone. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-convert-a-wps-to-a-doc/346126/11 "2006-02-26T17:50:47Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > This depends on the version of wordpad and the version of windows I believe. Older versions saved in a word format… I think word 6.0 or something, which was the version before office 97 > > The version of wordpad that comes with my windows XP, on the other hand, will work with RTF and txt formats - no others. Probably they decided not to keep supporting newer msword formats because it would take development time for the free product, and to get more people to shell out for office. 😉 > > I would think that works 8.0 would have a save to msword format function buried in there somewhere, though. Actually, this is weird. The Wordpad that came on my Xp-equipped desktop four years ago saves as .doc, but the version on my new laptop doesn’t. Perhaps old Wordpad saved as an RTF with .doc attachment as well, and by the time they started releasing XP SP2 on new machines they did away with the facade. [This Microsoft page](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870883) confirms there’s been a change in Wordpad: > [@](#): > > This problem occurs because WordPad’s Rich Text Format (RTF) converters are disabled in Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003 SP1. Therefore, .doc and .wri files that require an RTF converter cannot be opened by using WordPad.