Open DOC File

Open DOC File

You can open DOC file with Microsoft Word application which is a part of Microsoft Office suite. Microsoft Word is a very popular word processing application. It was released by Microsoft in 1983 as a Multi-Tool Word for Xenix operating system but got renamed to Microsoft Word soon after the release. First version of Microsoft Word was developed by Richard Brodie, in less than seven months. After that subsequent versions were released for various platforms including DOS, Mac OS, Unix, OS/2, Atari ST, SCO Unix. Currently Microsoft Word desktop versions supports Windows and Mac OS. Mobile versions of Microsoft Word are available for Android and iOS.

DOC files contain textual information with rich formatting and can also include images, charts, drawings, 3d models, shapes, videos and many more other content types.

DOC is a binary file format based on Compound File Binary Format (CFBF). In order to open DOC file an application like Microsoft Word or other compatible application is needed. If you don’t want to install full-fledged version of Microsoft Word on a desktop platform, you can use free iOS or Android versions of Microsoft Word. You can also open DOC file by importing them into OneDrive, Google Docs or Dropbox and view them online.

DOC file extension was the default file extension for Microsoft Word until Microsoft Office 2007 where it was replaced with DOCX file format which is based on Open Document File format.

DOC files can contain macros which in certain circumstances could be dangerous and contain viruses. Thus, it is not recommended to open DOC files from unknown sources. After a spike of macro viruses in 1999 macros were disabled in Microsoft Word by default. Still some malicious documents could confuse users to enable macros and infect the computer.

Open DOC File on Windows OS

• Double click on a DOC file in Windows File Explorer.
• If the DOC file opener software is associated correctly then the software will launch and the file will open in it.
• If the file did not open you should install Microsoft Word software
• To open DOC file in Microsoft Word you need to launch it and then select File->Open in the main menu
• In the File Open dialog select DOC file and click "Open"
• If you do not want to use paid Microsoft software you can install LibreOffice or OpenOffice

Learn how to delete a page in Microsoft Word.

Below are some of the file extensions which are related to DOC file extension:

• DOCX – Microsoft Word file format starting from Microsoft Office 2007. Based on Open Document File Format.
• ODT – OpenDocument File Format for Office Applications. Default format for LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org
• RTF – Rich Text Format. Rich document file format initially used as a default format for Microsoft Word.