DOC files or files with the extension .doc are Microsoft Word documents. Some of the most common business & educational documents are DOC files, like essays, project reports, resumes, etc. DOC files can be edited multiple times even after being saved. DOC files can contain formatted text, images, graphs, charts, tables & other things provided by Microsoft Word.
DOC was the default extension for Microsoft Word documents between 1983 – 2003, with the 1997-2003 version featuring an updated DOC format. Later versions (2007 – present) of Microsoft Word have featured the DOCX format, which uses ZIP & XML to compress a document’s content, resulting in smaller file sizes & more effortless transfer of information.
You can also use a document management system such as GLOBODOX to view, organize, secure, share, print, sign a word document.
Note: Opening a DOC file in 3rd party apps may affect the original formatting (font, spacing, tables, charts, etc) in the document.
Most software that lets you open DOC files also lets you save DOC files in other formats. Almost all the systems mentioned above, including Microsoft Word, Google Drive, etc allow you to save files in multiple formats like PDF, TXT, HTML, etc.
For example: If you want to convert a .doc file into a .pdf file with Microsoft Word, you can simply choose the option ‘Save As’, select the ‘PDF’ option from the drop-down & click on ‘Save’.
Another way of converting DOC files is by using document converter software. Some popular document converters include Zamzar, Doxillion, etc. One of the drawbacks of using document converter software is that they need to be downloaded on your machine. To avoid downloading any new software, you can also convert DOC files using free online document converters. File Zigzag is one such free document converter that doesn’t require additional downloads & supports more than 20 file formats including ODT, PDF, JPG, etc.