WPS Writer review | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
A 'Fabricated in Cathay' Microsoft Word, that both looks and acts the part. While WPS Author has work to do on its WPS Deject and collaborations, it is a competent Word culling, especially for Linux users due to its accurate DOCX compatibility.
For
- Desktop, mobile and cloud-based access
- All-time DOCX selection for Linux
- Easy to apply Ribbon card
Against
- Lack of OpenDocument support
- PDF support for free users is express
- No real-time co-editing
Laptop Mag Verdict
A 'Fabricated in China' Microsoft Word, that both looks and acts the part. While WPS Writer has work to do on its WPS Deject and collaborations, information technology is a competent Discussion alternative, especially for Linux users due to its authentic DOCX compatibility.
Pros
- +
Desktop, mobile and cloud-based access
- +
Best DOCX selection for Linux
- +
Easy to utilize Ribbon menu
Cons
- -
Lack of OpenDocument support
- -
PDF support for free users is limited
- -
No real-time co-editing
It'due south piece of cake to settle with what nosotros know. Once we familiarize ourselves with something, information technology tin exist hard to wean ourselves away and onto something new. Information technology's what keeps the 'Boomer' generation tuned in to radio stations and Millennials in their parents' basements. And I'thou sure information technology's the reason Zoomers relentlessly humble-brag nigh their taste in music in the YouTube comment sections of Pink Floyd videos.
When information technology comes to give-and-take processors, many of us have settled nicely into familiar brands and recognizable software similar Microsoft Give-and-take or Google Docs. However, there are many promising alternatives available, and searching online for give-and-take processing or office suite software volition accept results springing up faster than Hulk Hogan from a 2-count. Whether you're looking for something lightweight, mod, or complimentary - there are plenty of choices. What I'yard getting at is that you no longer have to necktie yourself to a Microsoft subscription or paw Google your information to relish top-quality certificate writing tools. And one of the best alternative options is WPS Writer.
Spanning beyond desktop, online (via WPS Cloud) and mobile, WPS Author is one of three applications that brand upwards Chinese software developer Kingsoft's WPS Office suite. Author (the "W" of WPS) is joined past PowerPoint alternative Presentation and the Excel-similar Spreadsheet. This places WPS Office on the smaller end of office suites, with many others choosing to expand their toolset to become extensive.
It is a strong core lineup though, 1 that has been in development since 1988. Newer entrants into the word processing market may look at the almost prominent features available and seek to replicate them, but more than seasoned offerings, like WPS Writer or Microsoft Discussion, have had the fourth dimension to slowly discover, adopt and integrate a vast number of smaller, but important features or improvements in addition to those.
I took some time to get to grips with WPS Writer and see simply how viable Kingsoft's offering is as an alternative to the usual word processing go-to'due south.
WPS Author pricing and packages
WPS Role is freely bachelor equally a desktop or mobile app, and as a deject-based pick to anybody creating a WPS account or signing in with a supported external account (such every bit Google or Facebook). This gratis account entitles y'all to 1GB of cloud storage for sharing your files with others or between devices, forth with access to the bones suite of office tools: Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheet. Ads are shown inside the costless package. However, in my fourth dimension of using the software, I barely noticed them. If yous're looking to piece of work with PDFs, a lot of that functionality can't be found inside a basic account. Instead, you'll demand to upgrade to 1 of two paid tiers of access.
The boosted tiers are amend suited for you should you require more storage, want more advanced spreadsheet functions or need admission to more document templates. The latter of which is found within the Template Premium packet which, equally the name suggests, gives you access to a library of premium templates for up to $5.99 per month. WPS Premium is the second of the packages and includes 50GB of cloud storage, full PDF support, a wider assortment of born tools for Spreadsheet, and a larger library of animations for Presentation. The WPS Premium package costs $18.99 for a 6-month subscription or $29.99 for the twelvemonth. Both tiers include the removal of ads and access to a backup center.
Unless y'all're reliant upon using PDFs or need a much larger storage solution, you're likely to go on with the free business relationship just fine. The ads that support the basic bundle are unobtrusive and generally go unnoticed, and at that place are however many templates available to use for complimentary across a range of categories.
WPS Author pattern and interface
Users of Microsoft Word will be immediately familiar with the design of Author on desktop. The interface emulates Microsoft's give-and-take processor almost entirely, with just a few layout tweaks and positional changes. While this design isn't the fanciest looking, it does endeavour to stay relatively distraction-free.
All of the nearly mutual tools and inserts can be establish within the Word-like ribbon, a great blueprint option to keep your workspace ataxia to a minimum without burying advanced formatting tools within overly packed drop-down menus. For fifty-fifty faster editing, you lot can besides highlight any section of text to summon a floating contextual toolbar.
There is a standard discussion processing footer at the bottom of the window. Here, you can rails your electric current page and word count at a glance, and besides perform spell checks or alter the workspace layout and zoom. This is as well where you can enable one of the worst night modes I've ever seen.
Enabling dark mode merely dims the page y'all're writing on, leaving the relatively bright GUI completely unchanged. If y'all're looking to relieve your optics while working past daylight hours, your best bet is to too change WPS Office's skin to something a fiddling darker. Thankfully, WPS Role comes with several dark and light-themed skins to allow some level of customization.
Interestingly, when using Author through WPS Cloud, the Word-inspired design is dropped altogether. Instead, the software resembles something more comparable to Zoho Author. The somewhat beefy ribbon is now gone, and in its identify is a very sleek, modern and lightweight tabbed toolbar.
Options are much more than spartan, and accessing more than advanced formatting will get out you scratching your head. Templates yous create inside the desktop version won't translate fully to WPS Cloud, with images and elements often going missing. There's also a very hitting-or-miss signature tool within WPS Cloud that is absent-minded from the desktop version; it took me numerous attempts to get it to work.
Notwithstanding, it is a much more than distraction-costless feel that maximizes your vertical screen space. Information technology's just a shame that with such a long history of development, Kingsoft decided to base the look and feel of its software on Microsoft Word instead of carving out an identity of its ain.
WPS Writer performance and compatibility
WPS Office is uniform across all major platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. During my time with WPS Writer, the desktop application ran without any issues. Loading files of various sizes was quick and without error. I had like results when testing WPS Cloud on Chrome, Border and Opera, but would routinely encounter upload errors when using certain tools.
While this level of compatibility is bang-up, WPS Writer is stifled by a relatively small number of supported document types. Mutual formats like raw text, rich text and HTML are readily supported. However, a notable absence is support for XML-based OpenDocument (.ODF), the format of selection for software such as OpenOffice and its derivatives. It's estimated that approximately 200 million people worldwide are users of the OpenDocument format through LibreOffice alone. These sort of numbers make its exclusion puzzling and it could be a needless headache if yous routinely encounter ODF files.
As mentioned, if y'all're looking to use WPS Writer with PDFs, you may eventually be faced with upgrading to a premium membership, every bit most advanced PDF functions are held behind a paywall. Author's innate compatibility with Word documents, nonetheless, is highly-rated, with many Linux users choosing the software for its ability to load and save Word documents without the formatting bug other suites are known to come across.
WPS Writer features
When it comes to word processors, at the very to the lowest degree y'all need a rich gear up of formatting tools to aid you accomplish the desired look and feel of whatsoever document you wish to create. Writer has your bases covered with all of the traditional formatting options bachelor. You'll have full control over font styles, sizes, headings, scaling, line spacing and justifications. A limited collection of text effects and WordArt styles add extra flair to your documents every bit needed.
You tin can include common elements such equally tables, images, text boxes, symbols, shapes and charts. You are also able to protect fastened images with watermarks, quickly insert screengrabs, or create tables of contents and encompass pages with just a few clicks. More avant-garde elements are also available; y'all can create forms, set up upwardly auto-text fields and craft equations with ease through the ribbon. Additional advanced formatting includes XML mapping and custom XML structuring with schemas. There's too a expert selection of page formatting options available, allowing you to fine-tune the margins and layout of your folio. Author also has a built-in function to interpret your certificate into simplified or traditional Chinese, should you need that option.
Thanks to the ribbon, these features are hands attainable and are quick to implement. In next to no time, you tin put together a well-designed, easy to navigate, and element-rich certificate with minimal effort. Only a minor percent of users will demand annihilation beyond Author'due south offered toolset, with options available to users from a beginner to advanced level.
Built-in collaborative tools allow you to share documents through your included cloud storage. Collaborators can so view, edit or annotate on your document to highlight issues or make writing suggestions. WPS Writer's co-editing is very like to that of Microsoft Word and Google Docs, though presented in a less polished manner. It also lacks the real-fourth dimension capabilities of its contemporaries, with edits or comments only appearing once you have reloaded your work. This can pb to muddled documents with co-editors commenting on an older version of a document where issues may no longer apply. That aside, co-editing is functional and pretty simple to use.
Any comments or proposed edits by co-editors will be shown in popups to the right of your document, awaiting your decision on whether to accept or deny these suggestions. Author's co-editing is a rougher user feel than the ones offered by Microsoft Discussion or Google Docs, and the lack of real-fourth dimension tracking hampers an otherwise useful addition to the software.
Bottom Line
With 33 years of development under its belt, WPS Writer is a robust and competent alternative to Microsoft Discussion, especially if you're a Linux user who works with DOCX. Author still finds itself living in the shadows of Microsoft's offering, but most all word processors do.
A Word-inspired design will give Microsoft 365 users an instant familiarity with the product, which is one less hurdle in luring people away from the office suite subscription service. It would be nice to see WPS Office try to rest this familiarity with an identity of its ain, much like its efforts with WPS Deject. Only all of this is mostly surface level, with WPS Writer's real draw being its rich no-toll toolset.
Author's smaller number of compatible file formats and its curtailed PDF functionality for free users is anything from a modest gripe to a deal-breaker, depending on your own personal activities. Simply for Windows, macOS and Linux users who want a DOCX-friendly, feature-rich, lightweight give-and-take processor that you can access on-the-get for complimentary, WPS Author should at the very least be included in whatsoever shortlist.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/wps-writer
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