Having trouble opening a file? It's probably because it has been saved in a file format that this version of Word doesn't support. Check the table below to see if that's the case.
Important
If Word for Android can't open your file, you may see an error message asking you to try opening it in a Word app on another device. There's no issue with the file itself; this happens when Word for Android can't read some of the elements in your file.
Try opening the file in Word for Windows, Word for the web, or Word for iOS. When you do this, Word tries to recover your document and asks you to save a copy. Once you save a copy, your document should open anywhere without a problem.
Compatible files
| File type | Open and edit | Open as Read-Only |
|---|---|---|
| Word documents (.docx) | Yes | Yes |
| Binary documents (.doc) | No | Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| Word templates (.dotx) | Yes | Yes |
| Binary templates (.dot) | No | No |
| Macro-enabled documents (.docm) | No | No |
| OpenDocument text (.odt) | No | Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| Password Protected (Password-To-Open) | Yes | Yes |
| Password Protected (Password-To-Modify) | No | Yes |
| PDF (.pdf) | No | Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| Rich text files (.rtf) | No | Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| Word XML, Word 2003 XML, or other XML files (.xml) | No | No |
| Hypertext markup language (.htm, .html) | No | No |
| Web pages (.mht, .mhtml) | No | No |
| Plain text file (.txt) | No | Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| Works 6-9 documents (.wps) | No | No |
Macros are preserved for .doc and .docm format; however, any files created from .dot or .dotm files will NOT contain associated macros. You cannot edit or execute macros.