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What are the Differences Between Various File Types in MS Word?

This article will introduce some of the formats for files that are in use within MS Word, describe them, and outline some of the differences between them

7When working with MS Word, it is important to consider the several file types that the program works with, as they differ in their properties. For example, you can design a document to have macros enabled inside of them in order to "attach" that document as a macro-enabled template to other document files.

MS Word uses several file extensions to format documents based on the version of MS Word that they were created in. Because MS Word has gone through several iterations since its release in 1983, each iteration of it has had features either removed or added or otherwise modified.

NOTE: Some of the file formats/extensions you can come across in MS Word are .doc, .docx, .dot, and .dotm. Each one serves its own purpose, so let's look at some of them in the table below.

File Extension What is it? What is its purpose?
 .doc Legacy file format for Word 97 - Word 2003 A proprietary file extension to be used by MS Word. Mostly compatible with versions of MS Word going from 1997 to 2003.
 .docx File format for Word 2007 to current version Current format that expands on the limitations of the .doc format. Improves upon several features, such as document/file integrity, compression, etc...
 .dotm Macro-Enabled Template for MS Word This file type is a template that is designed to be applied to documents to enable use of macros in the end document.
 .docm Macro-Enabled Document for MS Word This file type already contains macros that are ready for use. This file type can also be later saved as a macro template.