DOC (Word 97-2003 document)

DOC is the binary document format used by Microsoft Word up to Word 2003. It stores text, formatting, images and tables in a proprietary structure that Microsoft later documented publicly. Since Word 2007 it has been replaced by DOCX, which is based on XML and ZIP, but Word, LibreOffice and most word processors still open DOC files.

Use DOC only when you must share a document with someone on a very old version of Word or with a system that accepts nothing else. For everything else, DOCX is smaller, more robust and better supported. If you receive a DOC file, saving it as DOCX or PDF usually makes it easier to work with.

Source formats: .doc