Manatee

How to convert an old .doc to .docx on a Mac

· 6 min read

Every Mac can convert a .doc to .docx without buying anything: TextEdit opens the old file and saves it as Word 2007 Format (.docx), and the built-in textutil command does the same from Terminal, one file or a hundred. If you have Word or Pages, opening the .doc and using Save As or Export To gives the most faithful result for complex documents. For a folder of mixed old files, Manatee converts them in one drop and writes the new copies alongside the originals.

What changed between .doc and .docx

The .doc format is a binary file that Word used from the 1990s through Word 2003. The .docx format, introduced in 2007, is a ZIP archive of XML files. The newer format is what modern Word, Pages, Google Docs, and most web upload forms expect, and it is far easier to repair when something goes wrong.

Modern Word still opens .doc files, in what it calls Compatibility Mode, so conversion is not strictly necessary to read one. The reasons people convert anyway:

  • A website or application portal only accepts .docx.
  • Collaboration tools and newer features (co-authoring, modern comments) need .docx.
  • The .doc has been round-tripped through so many versions that it behaves oddly, and a fresh .docx is cleaner.
  • Archiving: the old binary format is harder to recover from damage than the ZIP-based one.

Before you begin, know what may not survive. Macros (VBA) do not carry into .docx at all; a macro-enabled file needs the .docm extension instead. Very old embedded objects from other programs may turn into pictures. And if the .doc is password protected, every method below needs the password first; none of them, Manatee included, will bypass it.

Option 1: TextEdit, already on your Mac

TextEdit is more capable than its reputation suggests. It reads .doc and writes .docx.

  1. Right-click the .doc in Finder, choose Open With, then TextEdit.
  2. Check the document looks right. TextEdit handles text, basic formatting, lists, and simple tables; it drops headers, footers, footnotes, and tracked changes.
  3. Choose File, then Save As (hold the Option key if you only see Duplicate). On recent versions, File, then Export To is the same dialog.
  4. In the File Format menu, choose Word 2007 Format (.docx).
  5. Give it a name and click Save.

The original .doc is unchanged. For letters, essays, and simple reports this is all you need. For anything with a complex layout, use Word or Pages.

Option 2: Word or Pages

If you have Word, it produces the most faithful .docx, because it is the format’s own application.

  1. Open the .doc in Word. The title bar shows Compatibility Mode.
  2. Choose File, then Save As (or File, then Save a Copy, depending on version).
  3. In the File Format menu, choose Word Document (.docx).
  4. Untick Maintain compatibility with previous versions of Word if that option is shown, so the document gains the full modern feature set.
  5. Save.

Pages does the same through export:

  1. Open the .doc in Pages. It imports the document and may warn about fonts or features it adjusted.
  2. Choose File, then Export To, then Word.
  3. Leave the format as .docx and click Next, then Save.

Pages is excellent with text and images but can reflow complicated tables, and it converts Word styles to its own and back, so check long documents page by page.

Option 3: textutil in Terminal, for many files at once

macOS includes a command line document converter called textutil. It uses the same engine as TextEdit, so it has the same strengths and limits, but it converts a whole folder in one command.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications, Utilities).
  2. Type cd with a trailing space, drag the folder of .doc files onto the window, and press Return.
  3. Convert one file:
textutil -convert docx "report.doc"
  1. Convert every .doc in the folder:
textutil -convert docx *.doc

Each .docx appears next to its .doc with the same name. The originals are left alone. If you want the output in a separate folder, add -output for single files, or move the results afterward for a batch.

Option 4: Manatee, for a folder of mixed old files

Old document folders are rarely tidy. There are .doc files from three versions of Word, some .rtf, a few WordML .xml files, maybe a .webarchive. Manatee accepts all of those as input and converts them in one go.

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert.
  2. Drag the folder into the window, or drop it on the menu bar icon.
  3. Pick DOCX as the target.
  4. Each file shows in the job list with progress. The .docx files are written alongside the originals, which are never modified.

Manatee runs entirely on the Mac, with no upload, no account, and no telemetry. It is free for 24 hours with every feature, then $9 once.

Where Manatee is particularly useful is the .doc that will not open at all. Its Repair mode reads damaged Word documents and writes a recovered copy, reporting honestly whether the result is Fixed, Partial, or Not fixable. A Partial result means some content was beyond recovery, and Manatee does not invent what is missing. How to recover a Word document that won’t open on Mac covers that situation in full.

What Manatee does not do: it does not convert Pages documents (export those from Pages itself), does not edit content, and does not crack passwords.

Checking the result

Whichever method you use, open the .docx and look for the things that most often drift:

  • Fonts. A .doc from a Windows PC may specify fonts your Mac does not have. Word substitutes silently; the layout can shift by a line or two.
  • Page breaks and section breaks. Check that chapters still start where they should.
  • Tables and text boxes. The most fragile elements in any conversion.
  • Headers, footers, and footnotes. TextEdit and textutil drop these; Word and Pages keep them.
  • Tracked changes and comments. Word keeps them in the .docx. If the document is going to someone outside, you may want to clear them first; see track changes and comments can leak: cleaning a DOCX before you send it.

The old .doc also carries the author name, company, and editing time from whoever created it, often a former employee or a relative’s old PC. That metadata comes through into the .docx. Manatee’s Clean mode strips it, and how to remove the author name and edit history from a Word document explains the manual route.

Questions

Word says the file is corrupt and will not open it. Try TextEdit first; it is more tolerant of damaged .doc files than Word is. If that fails too, run the file through Manatee’s Repair mode, which writes a new copy of whatever is readable.

Will the .docx be bigger or smaller than the .doc? Usually smaller, because .docx is compressed. A document full of images may be about the same size. If it grows a great deal, the converter probably re-encoded the images; Word and Manatee keep them as they were.

Can I convert .docx back to .doc for someone with old software? Yes. TextEdit and textutil both offer Word 97 Format (.doc), and Word’s Save As has it too. Features that did not exist in 2003 are flattened or removed in the process.

What about WordPerfect or ClarisWorks files? Those are different formats, and none of the tools here read them. Some can be opened by a free office suite and saved as .docx from there; others need the original application.