Word Processor Documents

“Well, I have Microsoft Word, so…”

You might be tempted to say Microsoft Word Document files (.doc or .docx) are text files. However, these are actually containers of many smaller files that are ZIP-compressed together into the .docx file. This complex file that Microsoft uses allows them to store images, objects, text, and complex formatting instructions all in a single file, which can then be easily saved, shared, or sent between users of the Microsoft productivity applications.

The downside to this format though is that you cannot open this file in a basic text editor to change it. The image below shows a Microsoft Word Document (.docx) opened in the Atom text editor. As you can see, this file does not present itself in a way that offers you much understanding of its contents.