How to convert HWP to Word — why Word shows garbage for an .hwp file, and what changes when Hangul saves it as DOCX

Open an HWP in Word — no error, just garbage

We opened practice.hwp — a 2-page notice saved by Hancom Office Hangul 2024 — with File > Open in Word. There was no error message, but the document was unreadable characters, set in Gulimche, and had ballooned to 279 pages (the Korean-content copy came out at 383–390 pages depending on the attempt).

Word's list of installed file converters explains why. The only HWP-related converters on this PC were for 'HWP 2.0–97' (open and save) and HWP 2.1/2.5 (save only) — formats from the 1990s. There's nothing that reads the HWP that current Hangul saves, so Word fell back to reading the file as text.

Choosing the converter doesn't help — 'not an HWP 2.0–97 file'

To pick the converter yourself, turn on File > Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file format conversion on open (Microsoft's 'Confirm file format conversion on open'). With it on, opening practice.hwp showed the Convert File dialog with Word's own pick — encoded text — already selected. The list also had plain text, RTF, HTML, web archive, XML, PDF, WordPerfect 5.x and 6.x, Recover Text from Any File and the HWP 2.0–97 converter.

Choosing the HWP 2.0–97 converter produced a 'this is not an HWP 2.0–97 file' message and then 'the file can't be opened'. Cancelling the Convert File dialog ended with 'the command couldn't be completed'. The newer .hwpx format made Word report the file as corrupt. If you only have Word, the reliable route is asking the sender for a DOCX or PDF.

Save as DOCX in Hangul — pages, line spacing and page numbers change

To hand a Hangul document to a Word user, use Hangul's Save As and choose the Word document (.docx) type. Hangul showed a compatibility warning — saving in this format may change the layout; continue? — and we continued.

So after converting, open the DOCX in Word once: add page numbers back (Insert > Page Number) and check nothing shifted onto a new page. The DOCX still uses Hangul's HCR Batang font; we couldn't test how it looks on a PC without Hangul installed, so if the layout matters, send a PDF alongside it.

Word → Hangul is the easy direction — Hangul opens DOCX directly

Hangul 2024 opened practice.docx (3 pages, made in Word) without any conversion step. It stayed 3 pages, and saving it as HWP showed no compatibility warning.

Common snags

• Word shows hundreds of pages of strange characters: Word has no converter for modern HWP — get a DOCX/PDF, or convert in Hangul
• 'Not an HWP 2.0–97 file': Word's converter is for the old format only
• An .hwpx 'is corrupt' in Word: the file is fine; Word just can't read the format
• Page numbers vanished after converting: they were dropped — Insert > Page Number in Word
• 2 pages became 3: 160% line spacing became Multiple 1.6 — check the layout in Word before sending

Practice

Use the two practice files (practice.docx and practice.hwp). Without Hangul, steps 1 and 2 still work.

1. 1Open practice.hwp in Word and see what you get; close without saving.
2. 2Turn on File > Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file format conversion on open, open it again and look at the Convert File list (turn the option back off afterwards).
3. 3In Hangul, open practice.hwp, Save As .docx, then open it in Word and compare pages, line spacing and page numbers.
4. 4In Hangul, open practice.docx, check the page count, and save it as HWP.

answer.docx is practice.hwp saved as DOCX by Hangul 2024 (3 pages in Word, no page numbers); answer.hwp is practice.docx saved as HWP (3 pages).

FAQ