How to open doc files. How to open a doc file

To view files in .doc format, most users use Microsoft Office Word - one of the components of the office software package from Microsoft.

The corporation's developers are gradually adapting Word for different operating systems, however, most current versions of Word for other operating systems have limited functionality.

Doc is a multi-platform text file format that supports markup and custom content styles.

In 2007, Microsoft improved the format, turning it into .docx, a format that uses modified data compression algorithms.

This approach helped reduce the source file format by more than 40%. The modified format has increased the level of document security (due to support for streaming byte encryption algorithms).

Older versions of word processors do not support .docx, users need to perform an automatic conversion to open the document in 1998/2003 versions of Word.

We present to your attention a list of the most successful alternative programs, thanks to which you can work with Word files on mobile and desktop operating systems.

Online services

In order not to install programs on your device, Word files can be opened and edited using the following online services.

MS Word Online

This site is an official development of Microsoft (link). The resource allows you to work with Word, Excel, Power Point documents in a browser without installation.

In order to access the service's functions, you must sign in to your Microsoft account.

In the window that opens, click on the image of a blank document to create a new file and start editing it in the browser.

The main advantage of this service is that it is almost completely identical to the desktop version of the program.

Some functions are still missing (for example, editing pictures, the review tab).

Users have the ability to create documents that can be edited by multiple users simultaneously in real time.

All created documents can be synchronized with One Drive cloud storage.

To open an existing .doc file, click on the File-Open tab and select the document in your One Drive cloud storage.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a service from Google with which you can quickly open and edit office documents on any device (link).

On the right side of the menu bar, select Documents.

To create a new document, in the window that opens, click on the + icon (in the lower right corner). To open an existing document, click on the folder icon (in the upper right corner of the page).

Docspal

Another service is Docspal. With it, you can quickly open a Word file, but without the ability to edit it. The site is convenient to use from a smartphone or tablet.

Thanks to its simple design, it does not consume much traffic.

Select the file on your device or enter the direct URL link to download it.

Click on the View button. Wait until the file is uploaded to the site and opens in a new window.

For Windows

Let's look at popular analogues of MS Word for Windows.

Open Office

Open Office is a free multi-platform application for working with office documents.

The Windows version of the program supports all the necessary functions for comfortable work with .doc and .docx documents.

You can download the program from the developer’s website (link).

Kingsoft Office

Kingsoft Office is a free suite of office programs for Windows.

In the Free version, users can work with a word processor - creating, editing, saving, converting document formats (download link).

For Mac OS

Let's look at good office programs for the Mac OS platform.

Official MS Office is available on Mac computers, but Apple developers have created a number of applications that are much better adapted for all Apple devices.

Apple Pages

With Apple Pages, users can create unique documents in .doc and .docx formats.

Using an Internet connection, you can share files with other users and edit them online.

The utility has a simple user interface and supports graphs, tables, charts, and Smart Art figures.

It is possible to check the text for errors and create your own text formatting styles. Spell checking is available only for Russian and English languages.

From the official website of the developers you can download additional spelling dictionaries for working with texts in other languages.

Rice. 13 - appearance of the AbiWord word processor

The DOC file extension is most often associated with documents created in a word processor. Microsoft Word, the famous word creation and processing application that comes with all versions of the Microsoft Office suite. This is the default file format used in Microsoft Word 97-2003, while newer versions of MS Word (2007+) offer users the option to save documents as DOCX.

What's in DOC files

A DOC file was originally created in WordPerfect, which was widely used in the 1980s. But the DOC extension has been on the lips of almost everyone since the advent of Microsoft Word in the 1990s. Today it is the most common format for text documents.

Previously, DOC files contained only formatted text, but over time it became possible to add a large number of built-in objects - such as any tables and various charts from other applications, as well as sounds, videos and images.

DOC conversion

To convert the DOC format, for example, convert DOC to - you can use any convenient online DOC converter or program, for example, Convertin.io.

How to open a DOC file

DOC files can be opened using the latest version of standard word processing applications such as Microsoft Word and LibreOffice Writer. Wordpad on Windows can also be used to open DOC files, although the formatting is very limited. As of Microsoft Office 2007, the format is the "native" format of that word processor, and it will not open in earlier versions of word processing programs without a compatibility pack.

The main program for opening DOC files is Microsoft Word (version 97 and above), but it is proprietary software (unless you are using the free trial version of MS Office). However, there are several free alternatives to the paid Microsoft Office that have support for DOC files - Kingsoft Writer, LibreOffice Writer and OpenOffice Writer. With their help, you can not only open DOC files, but also edit them, saving them in the same format. And in the first two, DOC files are even successfully saved in the new DOCX format from Microsoft. You can also open a Microsoft Word file online, for example, using the service

Text representation of documents is the most popular type of information display and almost the only one. But in the world of computers, it is customary to write text documents into files with various formats. One such format is DOC.

How to open DOC files

DOC is a typical format for presenting text information on a computer. Initially, documents of this resolution contained only text, but now scripts and formatting are built into it, which significantly distinguishes DOC from some other similar formats, for example, RTF.

Over time, DOC files became part of Microsoft's monopoly. After many years of development, everything has come to the point that now the format itself is poorly integrated with third-party applications and, moreover, there are compatibility problems between different versions of the same format, which sometimes interfere with normal operation.

Still, it’s worth considering how you can quickly and easily open a DOC document.

The most optimal and best way to open a DOC document is the Microsoft Office Word program. It is through this application that the format itself is created; it is now one of the few that can open and edit documents of this format without problems.

Among the advantages of the program are the virtual absence of compatibility problems between different versions of the document, great functionality and opportunities for editing DOC. The disadvantages of the application definitely include the cost, which not everyone can afford, and quite serious system requirements (on some laptops and netbooks the program can sometimes “freeze”).

To open a document through Word, you need to do just a few simple steps.

This is how quickly and easily you can open a DOC document through the official application from Microsoft.

Method 2: Microsoft Word Viewer

The next method is also associated with Microsoft, only now a very weak tool will be used to open it, which only helps to view the document and make some edits to it. To open we will use Microsoft Word Viewer.

One of the advantages of the program is that it is very small in size, distributed free of charge and works quickly even on the weakest computers. There are also disadvantages, for example, rare updates and little functionality, but much is not required from the Viewer, it is, after all, a file viewer, and not a functional editor, which is the above-mentioned MS Word.

You can start opening a document by first launching the program itself, which is not very convenient, since finding it on the computer is quite problematic. Therefore, let's consider a slightly different method.

With Word Viewer, you can open a DOC in less than a minute because everything is done in a couple of clicks.

Method 3: LibreOffice

The LibreOffice office application allows you to open DOC documents many times faster than Microsoft Office and Word Viewer. This can already be considered an advantage. Another advantage is that the program is distributed absolutely free of charge, with free access to the source code, so that each user can try to improve the application for themselves and for other users. There is one more feature of the program: in the start window it is not necessary to open the desired file by clicking on different menu items, you just need to move the document to the desired area.

The disadvantages include slightly less functionality than in Microsoft Office, which does not interfere with editing documents using quite serious tools, and a rather complex interface that not everyone understands the first time, unlike, for example, the Word Viewer program.

This is how LibreOffice helps you quickly resolve the issue of opening a DOC document, which Microsoft Office Word cannot always boast of due to its long loading time.

Files with the .doc extension are documents created by Microsoft Word. However, sometimes situations arise when this program is not on the computer. In this article we will tell you how to open doc file.

First of all, you need to tell us about the program Microsoft Word, which is included in the Microsoft Office suite. Using this program, you can work with doc files and carry out any operations to edit them. However, the Microsoft Office software package is paid. Therefore, to avoid possible problems and not install a hacked version of the program, it is better to use a free alternative.

You can open a doc file using the free OpenOffice.org Writer program. The distribution of this application can be downloaded from the official website of the application. The installation procedure is the same as for any other program for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

After installing the OpenOffice.org Writer application, launch it. A dialog box will appear on the screen, prompting you to perform one of several actions. We will be interested in the button for opening a new document, next to which it will be written "Open a document". Click on this button. After this, another dialog box will appear in which you will need to specify the path to the desired folder and select the required file. Next, click the “Open” button, and the selected doc file will open. Now it can be edited.

It is worth noting that since May 2012 this application has been called Apache OpenOffice .

Another free word processor is LibreOffice Writer. This editor was an offshoot of the development of OpenOffice.org Writer. Both software packages are cross-platform applications. This suggests that they will work not only under Windows, but also under Mac OS X, as well as UNIX-like operating systems.

You can also open a doc file using a program built into the Windows operating system. It is called WordPad. This text editor, of course, does not have the same functionality as Microsoft Word, but it does have the ability to change the font and color of characters, as well as align text. Only the version of WordPad for Windows 7 can work with doc and docx formats.

To open a doc file, you can also use online services. However, you will need your computer to be connected to the Internet. Services of this kind can be found on websites live.com and docs.google.com. Both services require mandatory authorization, so before starting work you must go through the registration procedure.

If you do not need to edit a doc file and just need to open it to read this or that text information, you will only need to download and install the free program Word Viewer. This application, like Word, was developed by Microsoft specifically for printing and reading documents.

As you can see, opening a doc file is quite simple. Moreover, for this it is not necessary to install Microsoft Word– a program for which this file format is standard. You can easily find other software on the Internet that you won’t have to pay to use. As for the capabilities of such programs, they are not at all inferior in functionality to such a powerful word processor as Microsoft Word. We hope the information in this article will help you choose an application for opening doc files.