Having trouble opening a file? It’s probably because it has been saved in a file format that Word doesn’t support on your device. Find your device and then check the table to see if that’s the case.
| 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) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Macro-enabled documents (.docm) |
No |
Yes |
| IRM-protected files |
Yes |
Yes |
| OpenDocument Text (.odt) |
No |
Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| PDF (.pdf) |
No |
No |
| Rich text files (.rtf) |
No |
No |
| 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 |
No |
| Works 6-9 documents (.wps) |
No |
No |
| 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) |
No |
No |
| Binary templates (.dot) |
No |
No |
| Macro-enabled documents (.docm) |
No |
Yes (Update to .docx format to edit) |
| IRM-protected files |
No |
Yes |
| 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 |
No |
| 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 |
| 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) |
No |
No |
| Binary templates (.dot) |
No |
No |
| Macro-enabled documents (.docm) |
No |
Yes |
| IRM-protected files |
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 |
No |
| Rich text files (.rtf) |
No |
No |
| 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. You cannot edit or execute macros.
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