Software & Apps File Types 26 26 people found this article helpful What Is an HWP File? How to open, edit, & convert HWP files by Tim Fisher General Manager, VP, Lifewire.com Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire. our editorial process Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tim Fisher Updated on May 22, 2020 File Types Design Cryptocurrency MS Office Windows Linux Google Drive Apps File Types Backup & Utilities View More Tweet Share Email A file with the HWP file extension is a Hangul Word Processor file, or sometimes called a Hanword Document file. This file format was created by the South Korean company Hancom. HWP files are similar to MS Word's DOCX files, except that they can contain Korean written language, making it one of the standard document formats used by the South Korean government. HWP is also an abbreviation for things that have nothing to do with a word processor, like Hewlett-Packard Company (its old stock symbol, replaced by HPQ) and health and welfare plan. How to Open an HWP File OpenOffice Writer and LibreOffice Writer are two free programs that can open and edit HWP files. However, when saving HWP files in those programs, you have to choose a different format (like DOC or DOCX) because they don't support saving to HWP. Microsoft provides a free tool for opening HWP files, too, called Hanword HWP Document Converter. Installing this lets you open HWP files in Microsoft Word by converting them to DOCX. Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and LibreOffice can open HWP files only if they were created with Hangul '97—newer versions of the .HWP file can't be opened with these applications. Hancom Office is another HWP viewer/editor, but it's only free for a month. It can open not only HWP files but also HWPX and HWT files, which are similar file formats. This free file viewer supports other Hancom Office formats, too, like CELL, NXL, HCDT, SHOW, and HPT, as well as Microsoft Office file formats. Hancom Office Online, also not free, lets you view HWP files online. If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the HWP file but it's the wrong application or you'd rather have another installed program open HWP files, learn how to change which program opens the HWP file. How to Convert an HWP File If you're already using one of the HWP editors from above, like LibreOffice Writer, you can export or convert the HWP to DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, and other document formats. You can also use a free file converter to convert the HWP file to another format, like Online-Convert.com. To use this online HWP converter, just upload the. HWP file to the website and then choose a format to convert it to, like ODT, PDF, TXT, JPG, EPUB, DOCX, HTML, etc. Then, you have to download the converted file back to your computer before you can use it. Still Can't Open the File? If your file still won't open after trying the suggestions above, there's a good chance you're misreading the file extension. Some files use a similar file extension even though the formats are completely unrelated. For example, you might be confusing Hedgewars Saved Game or Demo files, which use the HWS and HWD file extension, for an HWP file. Those types of files are used with the Hedgewars game and can't be opened with any of the HWP openers/editors above. WPH is another example where all the same file extension letters are used but instead of being related to HWP files, they're actually in the Phoenix BIOS file format and are used as BIOS files.