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DOCX
What is a DOCX file?
The Word format since 2007. A ZIP archive full of XML, which is why it converts reasonably well.
What DOCX is
DOCX is a container: a wrapper that holds streams encoded by something else. It is used for editing.
The extension is .docx, and the full name is Word Document. Both matter less than what the file can hold, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Where DOCX came from
Microsoft published it in 2007. The specification is ECMA-376.
Age is worth knowing here for one practical reason: the older a format is, the more programs have had time to learn it.
The specification is public
Anyone can implement it without asking permission or paying a licence, which is why it turns up in so many programs and why files written twenty years ago still open.
It can hold several pages in one file
A DOCX file is not limited to one page, which matters when converting to something that is: a target that holds one image produces one file per page, and the numbering it chooses is worth checking before you send it on.
It cannot contain macros
DOCX cannot carry executable code, which is why mail gateways and document portals let it through where they stop its macro-enabled twin.
What kind of document it is
DOCX holds a text document: paragraphs that reflow to fit whatever page they land on.
That is what decides how it converts: the text reflows, so page numbers are a property of the output rather than of the file.
What it does to protect itself
DOCX carries optional encryption.
An encrypted file has to be unlocked before anything can convert it, here or anywhere else — a password is not something a converter can work around, and one that claimed to could not be trusted with the file either.
What opens DOCX
Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer and Google Docs read it, and so do most programs of the same kind.
If a file will not open, the format is rarely the problem — it is more often that the program predates it. Converting to something older is the reliable way past that, and it is what the rest of this site is for.
Opening it in a browser
No browser reads it.
That is the single most common reason to convert it: not that the format is bad, but that the place you want to show the file cannot read it.
What it can carry besides the content
DOCX can hold document properties.
Whether any of it survives a conversion depends entirely on the target, and the honest answer is usually "some of it".
It is a working format
DOCX is meant to be opened and changed. Keep the file in this format for as long as the work is going on, and export from it whenever a finished copy is needed.
What goes wrong with it
The recurring complaints: the layout is reconstructed rather than reproduced exactly.
None of these is a reason to avoid the format. They are the things worth knowing before you are surprised by one, which is a different claim and a more useful one.
The facts, in one place
| Extension | .docx |
|---|---|
| Media type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Published by | Microsoft |
| First published | 2007 |
| Specification | ECMA-376 |