File format of word documents

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The following is a list of filename extensions used by programs in the Microsoft Office suite.

Word[edit]

Legacy

Legacy filename extensions denote binary Microsoft Word formatting that became outdated with the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Although the latest version of Microsoft Word can still open them, they are no longer developed. Legacy filename extensions include:

• .doc – Legacy Word document; Microsoft Office refers to them as «Microsoft Word 97 – 2003 Document»
• .dot – Legacy Word templates; officially designated «Microsoft Word 97 – 2003 Template»
• .wbk – Legacy Word document backup; referred as «Microsoft Word Backup Document»

OOXML

Office Open XML (OOXML) format was introduced with Microsoft Office 2007 and became the default format of Microsoft Word ever since. Pertaining file extensions include:

• .docx – Word document
• .docm – Word macro-enabled document; same as docx, but may contain macros and scripts
• .dotx – Word template
• .dotm – Word macro-enabled template; same as dotx, but may contain macros and scripts
• .docb – Word binary document introduced in Microsoft Office 2007
• .pdf – PDF documents
• .wll – Word add-in
• .wwl – Word add-in

Excel[edit]

Legacy

Legacy filename extensions denote binary Microsoft Excel formats that became outdated with the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Although the latest version of Microsoft Excel can still open them, they are no longer developed. Legacy filename extensions include:

• .xls – Legacy Excel worksheets; officially designated «Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Worksheet»
• .xlt – Legacy Excel templates; officially designated «Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Template»
• .xlm – Legacy Excel macro
• .xll_ – Excel 4 for Mac add-in
• .xla_ — Excel 4 for Mac add-in
• .xla5 – Excel 5 for Mac add-in
• .xla8 – Excel 98 for Mac add-in

OOXML

Office Open XML (OOXML) format was introduced with Microsoft Office 2007 and became the default format of Microsoft Excel ever since. Excel-related file extensions of this format include:

• .xlsx – Excel workbook
• .xlsm – Excel macro-enabled workbook; same as xlsx but may contain macros and scripts
• .xltx – Excel template
• .xltm – Excel macro-enabled template; same as xltx but may contain macros and scripts

Other formats

Microsoft Excel uses dedicated file formats that are not part of OOXML, and use the following extensions:

• .xlsb – Excel binary worksheet (BIFF12)
• .xla – Excel add-in that can contain macros
• .xlam – Excel macro-enabled add-in
• .xll – Excel XLL add-in; a form of DLL-based add-in^[1]
• .xlw – Excel work space; previously known as «workbook»

PowerPoint[edit]

Legacy

• .ppt – Legacy PowerPoint presentation
• .pot – Legacy PowerPoint template
• .pps – Legacy PowerPoint slideshow
• .ppa – PowerPoint (2007?) add-in
• .ppam – PowerPoint 2007 add-in with macros enabled

OOXML

• .pptx – PowerPoint presentation
• .pptm – PowerPoint macro-enabled presentation
• .potx – PowerPoint template
• .potm – PowerPoint macro-enabled template
• .ppam – PowerPoint add-in
• .ppsx – PowerPoint slideshow
• .ppsm – PowerPoint macro-enabled slideshow
• .sldx – PowerPoint slide
• .sldm – PowerPoint macro-enabled slide
• .pa – PowerPoint add-in

Access[edit]

Microsoft Access 2007 introduced new file extensions:

• .ACCDA – Access add-in file
• .ACCDB – The file extension for the new Office Access 2007 file format. This takes the place of the MDB file extension.
• .ACCDE – The file extension for Office Access 2007 files that are in «execute only» mode. ACCDE files have all Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) source code hidden. A user of an ACCDE file can only execute VBA code, but not view or modify it. ACCDE takes the place of the MDE file extension.
• .ACCDT – The file extension for Access Database Templates.
• .ACCDR – is a new file extension that enables you to open a database in runtime mode. By simply changing a database’s file extension from .accdb to .accdr, you can create a «locked-down» version of your Office Access database. You can change the file extension back to .accdb to restore full functionality.
• .ACCDU – Access add-in file
• .MDA – Access add-in file
• .MDE – Access add-in file

OneNote[edit]

• .one – OneNote export file

Outlook[edit]

• .ecf – Outlook 2013+ add-in file

Billing^[2][edit]

Publisher[edit]

• .pub – a Microsoft Publisher publication

XPS Document

• .xps – a XML-based document format used for printing (on Windows Vista and later) and preserving documents.

See also[edit]

• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Office XML formats
• Filename extension
• Alphabetical list of file extensions
• Office Open XML

External links[edit]

• Introducing the Microsoft Office (2007) Open XML File Formats
• Introduction to new file-name extensions

References[edit]

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DOC and DOCX extensions refer to the popular Microsoft Word file formats that have been part of its Office suite for a long time. DOC is the oldest file type and has been widely used prior to the introduction of the DOCX file format. DOC files are also known to be Word97-2003 files. DOCX file format was introduced with the launch of Word 2007 and is the default file format for saving word documents.

Routine users may not know the difference between the DOC and DOCX file formats, however, these two are different in several ways as detailed below.

DOC vs DOCX

Curious to know what is the difference between DOC and DOCX? Following is a list of differences between DOC and DOCX file formats.

The File Format Difference

The main difference between the DOC and DOCX file types is the underlying file format used for storing these documents.

DOC files are based on the Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) that stores information as binary files. Data is organized in a DOC file as a collection of records and structures that are arranged in binary streams as described in MS-DOC file format specifications.

In contrast, a DOCX file uses the Office Open XML format that saves data in compressed XML files in ZIP format. If you want to examine the underlying structure of a DOCX file, simply unzip the .docx file to view its contents. You can rename the DOCX file extension to .zip and extract it to view its contents in a folder similar to any other files in the folder.

File Size Difference

Another difference is the difference in the file sizes of DOC and DOCX file formats. DOC files are stored as binary files that also contain related formatting and other styling information.

In contrast, DOCX stores the document in Open XML format that is finally stored as compressed ZIP format. This reduces the overall file size of DOCX as compared to the corresponding DOC file with the same content.

Following is a comparison of file sizes of DOC and DOCX files that have exactly the same content. As can be seen, the size of the DOCX file is significantly smaller than the equivalent DOC file.

Word Supportability

DOC files can be opened with any version of Microsoft Word starting Office 2003. However, DOCX files can only be opened with Word 2007 and lateral versions. If you still want to open DOCX files with older versions of Microsoft Word, you will have to install a compatibility pack for this purpose.

Functionality Difference

With every new release of Microsoft Word, the DOCX file format gets richer in features. New functionality is implemented only for DOCX file types and backward compatibility for incorporating the same in DOC file format is no more supported. This makes DOCX file format superior in terms of functionality as compared to DOC.

Implementation Standards

DOC files are stored as binary files whose complete file format specifications are still not available. Though Microsoft has opened some of the specifications as per its promise, still other word processing applications have difficulty in reading and writing DOC files.

In contrast, DOCX is based on open standards and implements XML file format as the basis. This makes it easy for others to adopt the same standard without any difficulty as XML is easy to read and write. Hence, no guesswork is involved in writing applications for processing DOCX files.

Conclusion

So, which one is the better option, DOC or DOCX?

Well, DOCX is the modern file format for working with Word documents and is more flexible as compared to DOC file format. Its Open XML implementation lets application developers easily write software to read and write these files. Shifting from DOC to DOCX is possibly one of the best decisions by Microsoft. Moreover, this XML-based implementation has allowed 3rd party software developers to introduce more dynamic and easy-to-implement APIs for working with DOCX files. Thus, DOCX is the obvious choice of use in this case.

Common file name extensions in Windows

What is the default file extension for all Word documents?

The default file extension for all Word documents is ‘. docx‘.

The default file format for Word 2010 is Office Open XML (DOCX).

Which of the following extension is used for saving a file?

A Word Document, or DOC, file is the extension that Word would save its documents. Starting in Word 2007, the . docx file format became the standard file that Microsoft Word would save files as.

What is the file extension of Word 2013?

File formats that are supported in Word

What is the file extension for Microsoft Word 2016?

docx
docx has been the default file type for Microsoft Word since the 2007 version, i.e. in Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013 and Word 2016.

What is the default file extension of MS Word 2013?

DOCX
The latest version of MS Word which is MS Word 2013 by default saves the documents in DOCX as well. One of the biggest advantages of DOCX file format is that it supports some additional formatting which is not possible when legacy file extension is used to save the documents.

What is file extension and examples?

A file extension (or simply “extension”) is the suffix at the end of a filename that indicates what type of file it is. For example, in the filename “myreport.It indicates the file is a text document. Some other examples include . DOCX, which is used for Microsoft Word documents, and .

What are the 5 file extensions?

In summary, the most common document file extensions are:

• DOC and DOCX.
• HTML and . HTM.
• ODT.
• PDF.
• XLS and XLSX.
• ODS.
• PPT and . PPTX.
• TXT.

How do I add an extension to a file?

How to change a file extension

1. Click the file to select it, then click once more. Windows automatically selects the filename so that anything you type will replace the existing name.
2. Click and drag over the extension, type the new extension and press Enter.

What is the file extension of MS Excel 2010?

File formats that use the Clipboard

What is the file extension of MS Excel 2007?

xlsx
Office Excel 2007 supports the use of a new XML-based file format that Microsoft officially calls the Microsoft Office Open XML format. This new file format carries the filename extension . xlsx for Excel workbooks and . xlsm for macro-enabled workbooks.

What are Microsoft extensions?

Microsoft Edge extensions are small software programs that integrate with Edge to make surfing the internet easier, safer, and more productive. Here’s a look at finding and installing Edge extensions to personalize and enhance your web browsing experience.

How do I open an XLA file in Office 365?

How do I open an XLA file?

1. Select File → Options → Add-Ins.
2. In the Manage window, select Excel Add-ins → Go.
3. In the Add-Ins window, select Browse.
4. Find and select your XLA file. Then, click OK.

What does a file extension look like?

A file name extension is often between one and three characters and is always at the end of the file name, starting with a period.html file extension. Note. In all new versions of Microsoft Windows, by default, the file extensions are hidden, and you must have show file extensions enabled.

How do I get the file extension?

Open File Explorer; if you do not have an icon for this in the task bar; click Start, click Windows System, and then File Explorer. Click the View tab in File Explorer. Click the box next to File name extensions to see file extensions.

What is your extension meaning?

1 : the act of making something longer or greater extension of the sail. 2 : an increase in length or time. 3 : a part forming an addition or enlargement.

What is the extension of basic file?

For example, the doc extension tells your computer that the file is a Microsoft Word file.
Common Windows file extensions.

What is a 20 file?

What is 20 file? 20 filename suffix is mostly used for Salt Lake City Game Music files. Salt Lake City Game Music specification was created by Ubisoft Entertainment S.A.. 20 files are supported by software applications available for devices running Windows. Files with 20 extension are categorized as Game Files files.

What are the 4 types of files?

The four common types of files are document, worksheet, database and presentation files. Connectivity is the capability of microcomputer to share information with other computers. Wireless communication using mobile devices is the beginning of wireless revolution.

How do I make file extensions in Windows 10?

Add New File Types to Windows 10 Context Menu

1. The Context Menu. The Context Menu in Windows 10 represents the best way to create a new file quickly and easily.
2. Create New Files in the Context Menu.
3. Add New Files to the Context Menu.
4. Steps to Add File Types You Want.
5. Create Files and Save Time.

.doc (an abbreviation of «document») is a filename extension used for word processing documents stored on Microsoft’s proprietary Microsoft Word Binary File Format.^[4] Microsoft has used the extension since 1983.

Word Document

Filename extension	doc
Internet media type	application/msword[1]
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)	com.microsoft.word.doc[2][3]
Developed by	Microsoft
Latest release	10.1 17 May 2022; 10 months ago[4]
Type of format	document file format
Container for	Text, Image,Table
Extended from	Compound File Binary Format (since 97)
Extended to	Microsoft Office XML formats, Office Open XML
Open format?	Yes

Microsoft Word Binary File FormatEdit

Other file formatsEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit