Doc (computing)

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Word Document
MS word DOC icon.svg
Filename extension

.doc

Internet media type

application/msword[1]

Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)

Developed by

com.microsoft.word.doc[2][3]

Microsoft

Latest release
5.0
(4 September 2015; 13 months ago[4])
Type of format

document file format

Container for

Text, Image,Table

Extended to Microsoft Office XML formats, Office Open XML

Open format?

Yes

In computing, DOC or doc (an abbreviation of 'document') is a filename extension

for word processing documents, most commonly in the proprietary Microsoft
Word Binary File Format.[4] Historically, the extension was used for
documentation in plain text, particularly of programs or computer hardware on a
wide range of operating systems. During the 1980s, WordPerfect used DOC as the
extension of their proprietary format. Later, in 1983, Microsoft chose to use the
DOC extension for their proprietary Microsoft Word format. These uses for the
extension have largely disappeared from the PC world.

Contents [hide]
1

Microsoft Word Binary File Format

1.1

Application support

1.2

Specification

Other file formats

See also

References

External links

Microsoft Word Binary File Format[edit]

Binary DOC files often contain more text formatting information (as well as scripts
and undo information) than some other document file formats like Rich Text
Format and HyperText Markup Language, but are usually less widely compatible.

The DOC files created with Microsoft Word versions differ. Microsoft Word versions
up to Word 97 used a different format from Microsoft Word 97 - 2003.

In Microsoft Word 2007 and later, the binary file format was replaced as the
default format by the Office Open XML format, though Microsoft Word can still
produce DOC files.

Application support[edit]
See also: Comparison of word processors
The DOC format is native to Microsoft Word. Other word processors, such as
OpenOffice.org Writer, IBM Lotus Symphony, Apple Pages and AbiWord, can also
create and read DOC files, although with some limitations. Command line
programs for Unix-like operating systems that can convert files from the DOC
format to plain text or other standard formats include the wv library, which itself
is used directly by AbiWord.

Specification[edit]
Because the DOC file format was a closed specification for many years,
inconsistent handling of the format persists and may cause some loss of
formatting information when handling the same file with multiple word processing
programs. Some specifications for Microsoft Office 97 binary file formats were
published in 1997 under a restrictive license, but these specifications were
removed from online download in 1999.[5][6][7][8] Specifications of later
versions of Microsoft Office binary file formats were not publicly available. The
DOC format specification was available from Microsoft on request[9] since
2006[10] under restrictive RAND-Z terms until February 2008. Sun Microsystems
and OpenOffice.org reverse engineered the file format.[11] On February 15, 2008,
Microsoft released a .DOC format specification[4][12][13] under the Microsoft
Open Specification Promise.[14][15] However, this specification does not describe

all of the features used by DOC format and reverse engineered work remains
necessary.[16] Since 2008 the specification has been updated several times; the
last change was made in September 2015.

Other file formats[edit]

Some historical documentations may use the DOC filename extension for plaintext file format. The DOC filename extension was also used in historical versions
of WordPerfect for its proprietary format.

Some software applications use the name "DOC" in combination with other words
(such as the name of software manufacturer) for different file formats. As an
example, on the Palm OS, DOC is shorthand for PalmDoc, a completely unrelated
format (commonly using PDB filename extension) used to encode text files such
as ebooks.