Word uses file format converters to open and save documents in different formats. The most commonly used converters are installed with Word by default
If you want to convert a document to a different format so that you or someone else can open it in another program or in an earlier version of Word, you can select that file format when you save the document.
If you want to open or save in a format that's not installed by default, you may need to install additional converters.
The converters that come with Office Word 2003 allow you to do one or all of the following:
- Open a file that was created in another program.
- Save a file so that it can be opened in another program.
- Open a Office Word 2003 document in another program.
Opening and saving files in various formats without a converter
Word can open and save files in many formats apart from its default format (.doc), without the use of a converter.
Formats Word can open directly
- .doc
- The default Word document format.
- .dot
- Word template format.
- .htm, .html
- Web page in HTML format.
- .mht, .mhtml
- Web page in single file Web page (also known as Web archive) format.
- .xml
- Extensible Markup Language (XML) format.
- .rtf
- Rich Text Format (RTF); contains formatting instructions that other programs, including compatible Microsoft programs, can read and interpret.
- .txt
- Plain text format: contains no text formatting.
Formats Word can save directly
- .doc
- The default Word document format.
- .dot
- Word template format. Word applies all formatting and other attributes in the template to any new document based on the template.
- .htm, .html
- Web page in HTML format. Preserves Word document properties so that HTML documents retain Word-specific features if they are later saved back to Word document format.
Note You can also save a document in a filtered HTML format that removes the Word-specific HTML encoding (Web Page, Filtered).
- .mht, .mhtml
- Web page in single file Web page (also known as Web archive) format.
- .xml
- Extensible Markup Language file.
- .rtf
- Rich Text Format; converts formatting to instructions that other programs, including compatible Microsoft programs, can read and interpret.
- .txt
- Plain text format; contains no text formatting. Converts all section breaks, page breaks, and new line characters to paragraph marks. Allows you to select the ANSI character set or to use the encoding standard that you choose. Use an encoded format when you share documents with people who use system software in another language.
Changing the default file format
If you always save documents in a different format