However, don’t expect the layout or design of the document to be intact. So opening them in TextEdit will most likely give you at least a glimpse at the content of the file. Fortunately, the vast majority of Word files that you will get will be rather simple, barely touching on Word’s real power. Word has hundreds of layout and design elements that can do anything from a simple letter to a complete book. But TextEdit is capable of relatively advanced formatting, and can do tricks like, well, open. Long-time computer users might mistake TextEdit for a simple text editor, like Notepad or SimpleText. The first is to simply use TextEdit, a program that comes with Mac OS X. So how can you open these files?įortunately, a Mac user has many options.

But if you are a casual computer user, you probably haven’t invested in Microsoft Office for Mac, which means you don’t have Word. It is certainly available, and even popular among Mac users.

doc files to a friend or colleague, forgetting to inquire whether they have or use Microsoft Word.Ī typical Mac user, in fact, won’t have Microsoft Word on their Mac. Occasionally, Windows users decide to forward on one of these. docx files, which is its native file format. And almost all of them have a program called Microsoft Word, which is by far the predominant word processing application. There are an incredible number of Windows PCs in the workplace.