Microsoft Word can work with a wide variety of word processing formats. But there are some documents you cannot edit or even open in Word. Do you know what they are?
Here’s a list of what you can open and/or edit in Word:
| Type | File Extension | Description |
|
Word document |
.doc |
Any document created with a PC (not Macintosh) version of Microsoft Word |
|
Word template |
.dot |
Word templates (either those included with the software or those you create yourself, such as FAX cover sheets, etc.) |
|
Rich Text Format |
.rtf |
A generic word processing format that can be created by most word processing programs. It is text with some simple formatting (bold, italic, etc.) but without advanced Word features. |
|
Plain Text |
.txt, .csv, .ans |
Unformatted DOS text. Some types (like .csv) indicate that the file contains tabs or commas meant to separate fields (like in a database). |
|
WordPerfect document |
.wpd, .doc |
Documents created and saved in WordPerfect. |
|
Web pages |
.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml |
Format for publishing pages on the Internet. In Word 2000, you must use the command “File, Save As Web Page” rather than using the document type drop-down list. |
|
Works document |
.wps |
Documents created in Works. |
Depending on the version of Word you’re using, and what features have been installed, you may need additional add-ons to translate some document types (such as Microsoft Works).
What you can’t/shouldn’t open in Word
Word will allow you to retrieve other types of documents, such as Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets. However, the results can be somewhat unpredictable, since Word is not equipped to duplicate the unique formatting of other, non-word processing software.
If you’re going to edit and re-save those kinds of documents, it’s better to use the document’s native software for that task. In other words, if you have an Excel sheet that needs editing, open it with Excel. The same is true of other formats, such as Adobe Acrobat.
If you don’t know which software program to use to open a particular file, try double-clicking the document in Windows Explorer – usually, Windows will figure out the correct program to view, edit and save the document.
Elsewhere in this blog, we’ll learn about embedding information from other programs like Excel into your Word documents. This will let you include information from those files and still edit the source document (without having to update the information in any documents it is embedded in).
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