Korean schools, offices and government agencies still send many forms as .hwp or .hwpx files, the native format of the Hangul word processor by Hancom. If you only need to type your name into a form or fix a date, buying or installing a full office suite is overkill. The free HWP Editor opens the file in your browser so you can change the text and save it again.
Step by step
- Open the HWP Editor and drop in your .hwp or .hwpx file (or click to choose it).
- Click the spot you want to change. The text of that paragraph, or of that table cell, opens in the edit box.
- Type the new text, then press Enter or Apply edit. Use Undo (Ctrl+Z) if you make a mistake.
- To make text bold, italic or underlined, drag to select it in the edit box first.
- Click Save as HWP, Save as HWPX or Save as PDF. A new file is downloaded with "_edited" added to its name.
Replace a word everywhere
Open Find & replace, type the old text and the new text, and press Replace all. The editor tells you how many places changed, and Undo brings the old text back.
What it can't do yet
- You edit the text of one paragraph at a time. Adding new paragraphs, table rows or columns, images or shapes isn't supported yet.
- Text inside text boxes, headers, footers and footnotes can't be edited.
- Distribution (read-only) documents, password-protected documents and files from Hangul 97 or earlier can't be edited. To just read them, use the HWP Viewer.
- Pages are drawn with web fonts, so line breaks on screen can differ slightly from Hancom Office. When you open the saved file in Hangul, it uses the fonts set in the document.
- "Save as PDF" stores each page as a picture. If you need a PDF with selectable text, save as HWP and then use the print option in the HWP Viewer.
Whether a saved file opens exactly the same in Hancom Office can vary from document to document, so open anything you need to submit and check it once.
Is my document uploaded?
No. The editor engine (about 5 MB) and fonts are downloaded from this site the first time, and the document itself is opened and saved inside your browser. Files over 100 MB are refused.
FAQ
Do I need Hancom Office or a Korean keyboard?
No Hancom Office is needed. You can type Korean or English in the edit box with whatever keyboard layout your computer already has.
Can I edit HWPX files too?
Yes. The editor opens both .hwp and .hwpx files and can save in either format.