It's time to retire that Microsoft Works file

• You can read older files with a little sleuthing
• Better yet, find a modern alternative
• Tip of the week: PDF as last stop for old data

Question: I just got a .wps file in my e-mail, and I can't open it.

Answer: You received an orphaned file, created with a program that has long since vanished from stores and most computers' storage. You can work around isolated issues somewhat easily, but people whose outgoing messages now serve as an unintentional history lesson have more work to do.

If you are the recipient of a mystery file like this, you need to ID it first. The not-so-scientific method of a Web search for ".wps filename extension" reminded me that those three letters label a word-processing document created in Microsoft Works, a cut-down productivity suite Microsoft once made for home users.

The idea behind Works was to give those customers the same basic tools as the Redmond, Wash., company's Microsoft Office suite at a lower price — without also cannibalizing Office sales. That strategy became increasingly untenable as Google began attracting users with its free Google Docs Web applications, and Microsoft retired Works in 2010.

If you run Office yourself, you can enable 2003 and newer releases to read .wps files by installing Microsoft's free Works file converter. You can also ask the sender to e-mail a fresh copy of the file, saved in Word's .doc format (or the simpler, more compatible .rtf) using the Save As... command under Works' File menu.

Or you can just ask the sender to copy the contents of a document from Works and paste them into an e-mail — odds are the file probably doesn't feature any complicated formatting, and this way you can just read the message without running a separate app.

Now let's switch to what the send should do: ideally, retire Works. So if you are among the shrinking minority still using it, you'd launch that program, open any files you're going to want to read or edit later one last time, then save them in a more standard format such as Office's .doc and, for spreadsheets, .xls.

Then you can pick free replacement software. (I'm assuming that paying $120 and up for a version of Office is unlikely for somebody who's stuck with Works for this long.) If you have reliable broadband — and especially if you have a habit of working on files from more than one computer — consider a Web-based productivity suite.

That could be Google Docs, which has benefited from steady improvements that have added such useful features as the ability to work offline in Google's Chrome browser, but Microsoft has also shipped a good Web-only product in its Office Web Apps that makes it easier to share work with people using regular, disk-based software like Office.

Or you could install the free and open-source LibreOffice, which is not the prettiest-looking application (its designers succeeded all too well in cloning the cluttered interface of older Office releases) but should open any Office document around and match almost all of Microsoft's editing tools.

If you elect to keep Works around, however, please remember to use that "Save As..." command to avoid embarrassing "I can't open this" replies from your correspondents.

Tip: PDF as the last stop for old data

If you no longer need to update a document but want to keep it looking exactly as it does now, regardless of what happened to the program you created it in, you've got one obvious electronic choice: the Adobe-created Portable Document Format standard, which preserves the appearance of a document down to its typefaces.

Apple's OS X includes PDF output in any program that can print a file; in most versions, you go to a particular application's File menu, select "Print..." and click the PDF button in the print-dialog window to save it as a PDF file on your hard drive.

Windows doesn't include a shortcut like that, but you can add one with the free, open-source PDFCreator. Install it (declining its offer of an AVG anti-virus browser toolbar by clicking the "Custom Installation" button below that option), and you'll see "PDFCreator" listed as an output choice in any print dialog box. It's not the cleanest interface, but it's improved over what I recall from my last interaction with it.

Or, if you don't need to keep your files in digital form, you could just print out copies and store them carefully.

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Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.