Open and edit DOCX files without Word

What opens, and what comes through

Documents reads Word's .docx format, the one Word has saved in by default since 2007. Older .doc files have to be saved as .docx in Word first; Documents says so if you try to open one.

These come through as they are in Word:

• Paragraphs and their alignment, Heading 1 to 3 (deeper headings become Heading 3), the Title and Subtitle styles, and quotes.
• Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text color, size, font and highlighting.
• Links, and bulleted and numbered lists with their levels.
• Tables, including merged cells and header rows.
• Pictures in PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, WebP or SVG, page breaks, and the page size as Letter or A4.

Tracked changes are accepted as the file opens: insertions stay and deletions go. The status bar counts words and characters, and the zoom and spell check work as they do on a document you start yourself.

What Documents does not keep

Some parts of a Word file have no place in Documents yet. When a file has them, a message names them as it opens:

• Headers and footers, footnotes and comments
• Text boxes, charts, shapes, equations and embedded objects
• Columns and section breaks
• Pictures in old Windows formats (EMF and WMF)

A little layout is simplified without a message: margins come back as one inch on every side, and custom line spacing is not kept.

That matters when you save. Saving over the original would replace it with the simpler version, so Documents asks first, offering Replace the original or Save as a new file. For a document you only need to read or answer, a new file is the safe choice, and the original stays intact for the next person who opens it in Word.

Saving: Word, PDF and more

Octoolo writes the PDF itself, with no printer dialog: the pages are the size the document asks for, and you only choose a name and a folder. A copy in another format leaves the open .docx as it is; see Markdown to Word for the Markdown side.

While you work, Documents keeps a draft every two seconds. If the window closes before you save, the start screen offers Continue where you left off. The same start screen has Letter, Résumé, Report and Meeting notes templates for new documents.

Other ways to open a .docx on Windows

Microsoft's Word for the web opens .docx files in a browser at no cost with a Microsoft account, once the file is uploaded to OneDrive. Google Docs opens them too, with a Google account, converting them as it goes. LibreOffice Writer, an open-source office suite, opens them on the PC. WordPad, which came with Windows for years and opened simple .docx files, was removed from Windows 11 in version 24H2.

Documents is for the times you want neither an account nor an upload: the file is opened and saved on your PC, it works offline, and it comes with every other Octoolo app in one subscription. When a file depends on tracked changes, comments or an elaborate layout, Word itself is still the right tool, and Documents tells you as the file opens.