Word processing file formats

Formats for editable documents: paragraphs of styled text, with headings, lists, tables, pictures and comments. Pages are laid out when the document is opened, so the text can be changed freely.

Formats

.DOC

Word 6.0 and 95 document

Word 6.0 and 95 documents: single-byte text in one compound file stream.

.DOC

Word 97–2003 document

Word’s binary document from Word 97 to 2003: streams in a compound file.

.DOCX

Word document

Microsoft Word’s ZIP package of XML parts, standard since Word 2007.

.HWP

Hangul Word Processor document

Korea’s Hangul word processor document: compressed record streams in a compound file.

.ODT

OpenDocument Text

The open standard word processing document: XML parts in a ZIP package.

.PAGES

Apple Pages document

Apple Pages document: a ZIP package of IWA files and media.

.RTF

Rich Text Format

Formatted text written as readable control words, read by almost every word processor.

.WPD

WordPerfect document

WordPerfect’s document: a WPC header, then text mixed with formatting codes.