Not long ago, my sister emailed me a file with a .wps extention on it. She had received the file from her trainer at the fitness center of which she is a member. To be honest, I was thrown my the file extension; I couldn't think of what kind of file it was. Since my sister had asked if I could print it for her, I assumed it was some sort of word processing document. I opened my browser, searched Google, and learned that it was a Microsoft Works file. Yes, Microsoft Works. I have neither used nor even thought about Works for a very long time. I had no idea there was anyone left in the world who used it.

DocsPal

Nevertheless, she needed it to be opened and printed. I was able to import the file into Word 2010 on Windows, but I didn't want to print these kinds of files for my sister from week to week, and she didn't want me to. So, I searched for document converters on Google and found a handful. The one I ended up using was DocsPal (http://www.docspal.com). I simply uploaded the Works file (Works?!? Really?!?) to DocsPal, selected to download as a .docx file (there are many options from which to choose, including PDF and ODT), clicked the "Convert" button, and then downloaded my file. Very simple.

So, if anyone ever sends you a Works file—or doc, docx, PDF, ODT, etc.—but you need it in a different format, check out DocsPal.

Feel free to post links to other online document conversion services (esp. free ones) in a comment to this post.