Difference Between doc and docx in Microsoft Word

doc vs docx in Microsoft Word

For those who need to create text files, knowing differences between doc and docx is essential as it can create a lot of headaches if they work in doc when docx is the format that is increasingly being used by everyone around. It is a fact that you cannot open docx files if you have got doc (Word 2003) installed in your computer, and you need additional compatibility pack to be able to do so. This is not the only difference between doc and docx file formats that will be clear after reading this article.

To begin with both doc and docx are word file formats created by Microsoft, and are intended to be used by Office suit distributed by the company worldwide. While doc is a format applicable with Word 2003 and older, docx is the format being used by Microsoft since 2007. Those working on Office 2007 or Office 2010 know that when they save while working in Word, their files are saved in the docx format, which uses considerably smaller space than doc format.

Till 2003 Microsoft made use of doc format as it was backward compatible, and also with other word processors, not just Office made by Microsoft. There are still people working on Office 2003, and for such people Microsoft has had to release a compatibility pack so that they can open docx files on their computer. There are more differences between doc and docx files. While docx files are XML based, the same cannot be said about doc files. The reason why docx files take up smaller space than doc files is that they are actually zipped files.

What is the difference between doc and docx in Microsoft Word? • Both doc and docx are word file formats, but doc is a format that was a part of Office 2003 and earlier, whereas docx is a newer format that is there with Office 2007 and Office 2010. • Docx takes up lesser space than doc files as they are zipped files. • docx are XML files, whereas doc are not.