How to open a docx document

March 7th, 2008 | by Rob |

WHY? Microsoft 2007 saves documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) as a .docx file and no other software can read it.

When Microsoft 2007 came out, they also invented a new format to save their files in. It’s a .docx file. And wouldn’t you know it that it’s the default setting? And wouldn’t you also know it if I told you that no other software can open a .docx file?

ms office logoWell, sort of.

If you are a Microsoft Office user and haven’t upgraded to 2007 yet and someone sends you a .docx file, there is an easy way to set it to open the file. Microsoft, in their wisdom, knew you wouldn’t be able to open the file so they have provided a download that, after installed, will open a Word 2007 document in an earlier version of Word. Wasn’t that thoughtful of them?

Or just purchase Microsoft Office 2007!

If you have a Mac or don’t want to install the fix, you can use a website called docx2doc that converts a uploaded .docx file and emails you the .doc file.

Thanks to gHacks.net for saving me yesterday. Someone emailed me two .docx files and I couldn’t open them. gHacks.net pointed me to the MS installation and the online converter.

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  1. 9 Comments to “How to open a docx document”

  2. By JQ on Mar 7, 2008 | Reply

    I just use OpenOffice now, in Windows or in Linux.

  3. By Sitting on the docx on the bay on Mar 7, 2008 | Reply

    This information is quite misleading. To say that “no other software can read it” is quite erroneous — you’ve got it exactly backwards!

    The .docx file format is an open file format by definition (part of Office Open XML, ergo the “x” at the end of the “doc”) which is designed to be royalty-free and open so other softwares can work with it more easily.

    In the past MS Office document formats that we are all familiar with (.doc, .xls, etc) were proprietary formats and originally only MS Office could open or work with these files. True knowledge into their underlying source was held closely by MS and only limited interoperability was allowed to be “open” to other developers (so another text editor could open & work with a .doc file, but only MS Word could take full advantage of it). The new XML formatting used by .docx and others is not even owned by MS, rather it is controlled by an international standards organization (ECMA).

  4. By Rob on Mar 8, 2008 | Reply

    @Sitting on the docx of the bay : thanks for stopping by with your comment. I’d like to share a few thing with you: 1. You didn’t leave a valid email address so I should have deleted your comment. However, I decided to let it go through anyway for the sake of the conversation. 2. When I said “no other software can read it”, you may have stopped reading. The next line said, “well, sort of” 3. The intent of this site is to try and remove the techie-talk out of everyday situations therefore I was focused on a solution, not a definition. You have some good information in your comment and I apprecaite it. Next time please leave a valid email address as per the commenting policy on the right column.

  5. By Jack on Mar 9, 2008 | Reply

    Microsoft also offers a free download to allow opening of the Microsoft Office 2007 formats in previous versions of Microsoft Office. The tool has some limitations, which are described in this help document.

  6. By Jack on Mar 9, 2008 | Reply

    Oops! The help document I linked is the same one Rob linked.

    Also, we Office 2007 users could be better about loving our neighbors by keeping our docx files to ourselves for right now unless we know the recipient has Office 2007.

  7. By Todd on Mar 13, 2008 | Reply

    Yes, you have to read VERY carefully these days or you will miss the entire point of the story!

    There are 2 additions that can be made here :

    1. Office 2007 users have the ability to change their default file format from .docx and .xlsx to the more standard .doc and .xls file formats in the options for each program. This was the workaround before the compatibility pack was available from Microsoft.

    2. Mac users now have support for the new XML formats by upgrading to Office 2008 for Mac. This new version sets the .docx and .xlsx formats as the standard on a Mac as well. I had also heard a few months ago that OpenOffice for the Mac was going to support the new formats as well, but have not installed a recent copy to test this.

    So just as with all new technology, there are some growing pains and eventually everything will work out. Ahhhhh, I remember not wanting to upgrade to Windows 95 when it first came out and really wanted to keep my Windows 3.11 installation. Eventually, you have to move forward!

  8. By Jolly Jack on Feb 21, 2009 | Reply

    I use Windows XP and have had Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 installed since late 2007.
    Suddenly today (Feb. 21, 2009), I noticed that the majority of my file documents in my flash drive now have “docx” at the end of their name. Some have just “doc,” some “rtf,” others remain as they were with no appending letters.
    How or why did this happen?
    I certainly didn’t add this extra title, and it scares me that something like this could happen without me first being informed.
    So far, I haven’t noticed any difference in accessing or editing the files, but it still scares me that something totally strange like this can hit me out of the blue.
    Now, I wonder what other surprises are lying in wait for me!
    Can anyone reassure me about this? Thanks in advance!

  9. By sylvia on May 13, 2009 | Reply

    I just received in my e-mail a docx document that I cannot download. Help! How can open this and download it. By the way I am not very savvy at all! Thanks!

  10. By Rob on May 14, 2009 | Reply

    Sylvia, did you try the download patch from Microsoft? See http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

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