What is a .DOCX file and how does it differ from a .DOC file in Microsoft Word?

For most of its long history, Microsoft Word has used a proprietary format for its saved files, DOC. From 2007 with the updated version of Word (y Microsoft Office), the default save format was changed to DOCX. It was not simply a late version of the format of the decade of 1990: that extra X means the Office Open XML standard. What is the difference and which one should I use?

DOC is a document format used by Microsoft Word, while DOCX is its successor. Both are relatively open, but DOCX is more efficient and creates smaller and less corrupt files. If you have the option, use DOCX. DOC is only necessary if the file will be used by versions of Word prior to 2007.

A brief history of the DOC format

Microsoft Word began using the DOC format and the file extension more than 30 years in the first version of Word for MS-DOS. As an extension explicitly for Microsoft's proprietary document processor, the format was also proprietary: Word was the only program that officially supported DOC files until Microsoft opened the specification in 2006, after which reverse engineering was done.

In the years 90 and early 2000, several competitive products could work with DOC files, even though some of Word's more exotic formats and options weren't fully compatible with other word processors. Since Office and Word were the de facto standards for office productivity suites and word processors, respectively, The closed nature of the file format undoubtedly helped Microsoft maintain its dominance over products like Corel's WordPerfect.. From 2008, Microsoft has released and updated the DOC format specification several times for use in other programs., even though not all advanced Word functions are compatible with open documentation.

After 2008, DOC has been integrated into free and paid word processing programs from many vendors. Made it much easier to work with older word processor formats, and many users still prefer to save to the old DOC standard, in case a friend or customer with an older version of Microsoft Office needs to open it.

Introducing Office Open XML (DOCX)

Under pressure from increasing competition from free and open source Open Office and its competitor Open Document Format (ODF), Microsoft pushed for the adoption of an even broader open standard in the early 1990s. 2000. This culminated in the development of the DOCX file format, together with your peers like XLSX for spreadsheets and PPTX for presentations.

The standards were presented under the name “Office Open XML” (no link to the Open Office program) since the formats were based on Extensible Markup Language rather than the older, less efficient binary format. This language allowed some benefits, especially smaller file sizes, less chance of corruption and better compressed images.

The XML-based DOCX format became the default save file for Word in version 2007 of the software. At that moment, many users assumed that the new DOCX format and its Microsoft Office contemporaries were simply a means for Microsoft to phase out older versions of the software and sell new copies, since older versions of Word and Office could not read the new XML. records. This was not entirely true; Word 2003 can read special Word XML file formats and, subsequently, compatibility updates were applied to other versions. But whatever the case, some users manually saved files to the older DOC standard instead of DOCX for compatibility reasons … somewhat ironic, since it was only more compatible with older versions of Word, not with other cross-platform tools like Open Office Writer .

Ten years later, DOCX has become the new de facto standard, even though it is not as universal as the older DOC file format was thanks to competitors like ODF and a general decline in the use of traditional word processors.

Which one should you use?

DOCX is a better option for almost all situations. The format creates smaller, lighter files that are easier to read and transfer. The open nature of the Office Open XML standard means that it can be read by almost any full-featured word processor, including online tools like Google Docs. The only reason to use the older DOC file format now would be to recover some files older than ten years or to work with a very outdated word processor. Whatever the case, it would be better to save the file back to DOCX, or in some other modern standard like ODF, for easy conversion.

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