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Having trouble opening a file? It’s probably because it has been saved in a file format that Word doesn’t support on your device. Find your device and then check the table to see if that’s the case.

Note: This article refers to mobile devices only. If you're having difficulty opening a document in Word on your PC see Open a document after a file corruption error.

File type

Open and edit

Open as read-only

Word documents (.docx)

Yes

Yes

Binary documents (.doc)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Word templates (.dotx)

Yes

Yes

Binary templates (.dot)

Yes

Yes

Macro-enabled documents (.docm)

No

Yes

IRM-protected files

Yes

Yes

OpenDocument Text (.odt)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

PDF (.pdf)

No

No

Rich text files (.rtf)

No

No

Word XML, Word 2003 XML, or other XML files (.xml)

No

No

Hypertext markup language (.htm, .html)

No

No

Web pages (.mht, .mhtml)

No

No

Plain text file (.txt)

No

No

Works 6-9 documents (.wps)

No

No

File type

Open and edit

Open as read-only

Word documents (.docx)

Yes

Yes

Binary documents (.doc)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Word templates (.dotx)

No

No

Binary templates (.dot)

No

No

Macro-enabled documents (.docm)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

IRM-protected files

No

Yes

OpenDocument Text (.odt)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Password Protected (Password-To-Open)

Yes

Yes

Password Protected (Password-To-Modify)

No

Yes

PDF (.pdf)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Rich text files (.rtf)

No

No

Word XML, Word 2003 XML, or other XML files (.xml)

No

No

Hypertext markup language (.htm, .html)

No

No

Web pages (.mht, .mhtml)

No

No

Plain text file (.txt)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Works 6-9 documents (.wps)

No

No

File type

Open and edit

Open as read-only

Word documents (.docx)

Yes

Yes

Binary documents (.doc)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Word templates (.dotx)

No

No

Binary templates (.dot)

No

No

Macro-enabled documents (.docm)

No

Yes

IRM-protected files

No

No

OpenDocument Text (.odt)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Password Protected (Password-To-Open)

Yes

Yes

Password Protected (Password-To-Modify)

No

Yes

PDF (.pdf)

No

No

Rich text files (.rtf)

No

No

Word XML, Word 2003 XML, or other XML files (.xml)

No

No

Hypertext markup language (.htm, .html)

No

No

Web pages (.mht, .mhtml)

No

No

Plain text file (.txt)

No

Yes

(Update to .docx format to edit)

Works 6-9 documents (.wps)

No

No

Macros are preserved for .doc and .docm format. You cannot edit or execute macros.

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