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January 17, 2008

Ever had to open up a docx file on a Mac and you had no idea how to? Here is the simple solution:

  • Change .docx to .zip
  • Unzip it.
  • Go to Safari and File > Open File…
  • Navigate to the /insert_name_of_Word_file_here/word/document.xml and open.
  • Read text.

Update:

Microsoft released a converter for the Mac last December. It’s still in beta but it does the job perfectly. Download Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2.1 (Beta) here.

Update:

See this post and links for Microsoft Office Open XML File Converter

Popularity: 75% [?]


Comments

There are 24 comments for this post.

  1. Moonshine on January 28, 2008 7:26 pm

    You are da bomb! Works like a charm…

  2. Bill on February 7, 2008 1:04 pm

    There is also a dashboard widget available to convert docx files:

    http://docx-converter.com/widget/

  3. Joshua Wait on February 20, 2008 10:37 am

    Thanks for the tip!

  4. Les on May 31, 2008 4:52 pm

    The instructions worked pretty well, but the file I opened came through with no formatting whasoever, not even paragraph breaks. The link for http://docx-converter.com/widget/ does not work (mentioned in response 2).

  5. Richard on June 1, 2008 6:34 am

    @Leslie – True. Safari will not format the doc for you. The method mentioned in the post is a quick and dirty solution for opening docx files.

    Another solution is the online service from Zamzar. They will convert the file for you for free and email it to you. Depending on how busy they are it can take 2 to 5 hours before you will receive your file.

    Hope this helps!

  6. Javacat on June 12, 2008 7:04 pm

    I thought about looking up instructions on how to make a dirty bomb until I found your solution. THANK YOU! Microsoft gets to live another day…god-damn them.

  7. shakurani on June 15, 2008 6:48 pm

    Woww.. MAGIC!!!! Thanks so much! Really helped me a lot!!!! ;)

  8. Biffyjack on June 26, 2008 6:03 am

    How did you figure that one out? Awesome! What is MicroSoft thinking when they do this stuff?

  9. DAVE on July 14, 2008 6:46 am

    Please i need software to download to my system that can open docx file sent through email automatically.

    Thanks

  10. Richard on July 14, 2008 7:31 am

    @Dave Not sure about and automatic conversion but you can download the Open XML File Converter here. Hope this helps

  11. aerodi on August 19, 2008 2:42 pm

    I tried the widget but it didn’t worked.. it seems it gets to converting but I got no results.

    I’ll try my luck with the Open XML File Converter

  12. Nick on September 4, 2008 6:05 am

    Worked. Very clever. Much thanks.

  13. dsco on September 5, 2008 6:34 am

    This will save many lives, and I’ll be sure to spread the word… thanks for the tip.

  14. Kate on September 24, 2008 7:52 pm

    Wow. I love you all. Thank you.

  15. Marni on October 2, 2008 2:40 pm

    I LOVE YOU! THANX <3 :-D !!!!!

  16. Natasha on October 13, 2008 2:25 am

    Kick ass tip, thanks!!

  17. burners on October 28, 2008 3:26 pm

    text edit does the job easiest!

  18. daena on November 19, 2008 3:12 pm

    You are a lifesaver!!! Worked PERFECTLY!!! Awesome!

  19. Jeremiah on January 14, 2009 12:37 am

    Interestingly i was able to view a .docx file directly in Quick Look (10.5.6). It was a large file with embedded images, tables, and formatting, and Quick Look displayed it properly.

    For some reason the unzip trick didn’t work for me. And i didn’t want to install anything. Microsoft’s converter wouldn’t have helped much because i still can’t open regular .doc files without Word installed.

    I didn’t need to edit the document and just wanted to open and view it, so i did this (similar to the Zamzar service mentioned previously):

    Upload to scribd.com, then you can view it in your browser, download as a PDF, or print it out.

  20. Greg on February 5, 2009 12:07 pm

    Yo Burners! Text Edit is the ticket. Amazing that Microsoft invented something that its own software can’t deal with (although it had to be intentional), but something as simple as Text Edit can.

    Thank you! I’ve been looking high and low for a solution and it was right under my nose. Much appreciated!

  21. NH on March 1, 2009 5:30 pm

    NONE of the tips worked for me. My Mac couldn’t identify a place to install the application. What’s wrong with, safari opened a blank page and text edit brought up a bunch of garbage.

  22. jogh on March 16, 2009 11:24 am

    holy shit thanks

  23. Dan on March 19, 2009 1:27 pm

    What do you mean by Unzip?

  24. Richard on March 19, 2009 2:12 pm

    UnZip is an extraction utility for archives compressed in .zip format (also called “zipfiles”). If you change the file to zip and double click the zip file, Mac will automatically unzip it for you as it is build in OS X

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