Manatee

How to convert RTF to DOCX on a Mac

· 5 min read

TextEdit, which is on every Mac, opens RTF natively and saves it as Word 2007 Format (.docx) from the File Format menu in the Save As dialog. For a folder of RTF files, the built-in Terminal command textutil -convert docx *.rtf does them all in one line. Word, Pages, and Manatee also handle the conversion, and Manatee is the practical choice when the folder contains a mix of old formats.

RTF and DOCX: what you are converting between

Rich Text Format is a plain text markup that dates from 1987, designed so that any word processor could read any other word processor’s documents. It carries fonts, bold and italic, paragraph alignment, lists, simple tables, and embedded images. It is the native format of TextEdit, which is why so many Mac users have RTF files without ever choosing the format.

DOCX is Word’s modern format: a ZIP archive of XML files that can hold everything Word does, including headers and footers, footnotes, tracked changes, comments, styles, and complex tables. Converting RTF to DOCX is a step up in capability, so nothing in an RTF file should be lost on the way. The conversion is about compatibility: a job application portal, a publisher, a school system, or a colleague’s template expects .docx, and RTF is met with a shrug.

Option 1: TextEdit

This is the most direct route, because TextEdit is the app that probably created the RTF.

  1. Double-click the RTF file. It opens in TextEdit unless you have changed the default.
  2. Choose File, then Save As. If you only see Duplicate, hold the Option key while the File menu is open, or use File, then Export To, which opens the same dialog.
  3. Open the File Format menu at the bottom of the dialog and choose Word 2007 Format (.docx).
  4. Enter a name, choose a folder, and click Save.

The original RTF stays where it was. If your document contains images, see the RTFD section below, because there is a wrinkle.

Option 2: textutil in Terminal, for a batch

textutil is a command line document converter that ships with macOS. It uses the same engine as TextEdit, so the result is identical, but it works on many files at once.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications, Utilities).
  2. Type cd with a trailing space, drag the folder of RTF files onto the Terminal window, and press Return.
  3. Convert every RTF in the folder:
textutil -convert docx *.rtf
  1. To convert a single file and choose where the output goes:
textutil -convert docx "notes.rtf" -output "$HOME/Desktop/notes.docx"

Each .docx appears next to its .rtf with the same base name. The originals are untouched. textutil also handles .rtfd packages, which matters for the next section.

RTFD: rich text with attachments

If a TextEdit document contains pictures, macOS saves it as RTFD rather than RTF. An RTFD file is a package: a folder that Finder shows as a single document, containing the RTF text plus the image files as separate items. Emailing an RTFD to a Windows user produces confusion, because they receive a folder of parts.

Converting RTFD to DOCX solves that, since DOCX stores images inside its single file. TextEdit’s Save As works exactly as above. textutil handles it with the same command:

textutil -convert docx "report.rtfd"

Manatee also accepts .rtfd as input. The images are embedded in the resulting .docx at their original resolution.

One caveat: TextEdit places images inline with the text, and that is how they arrive in the .docx. If you want text wrapping around the picture, set that up in Word or Pages after converting.

Option 3: Word or Pages

Word opens RTF directly, and its .docx output is the reference for the format.

  1. Open the RTF in Word (right-click, Open With, Word if Word is not the default).
  2. Choose File, then Save As (or Save a Copy).
  3. Set File Format to Word Document (.docx) and save.

Pages imports RTF and exports through File, then Export To, then Word. Pages converts to its own styles on import and back to Word styles on export, which is fine for prose and can shift complex tables. Check the result if the document has any.

Neither Word nor Pages converts a folder of files at once. For that, use textutil or Manatee.

Option 4: Manatee, for mixed folders

Old document folders tend to contain a bit of everything: RTF, RTFD, .doc from several Word versions, .webarchive from Safari, HTML saved from an email. Manatee accepts all of those as input and converts them in one drop.

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert.
  2. Drag the folder into the window, or onto the menu bar icon. Each file becomes a job in the list.
  3. Pick DOCX as the target.
  4. Each .docx is written alongside its source. Manatee never modifies the original.

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

Manatee is not a word processor, so it will not edit the text, apply a template, or fix formatting; it produces the .docx and leaves the rest to Word or Pages. It does not convert Pages documents, which you export from Pages itself.

A note on what the DOCX carries with it

An RTF file created in TextEdit carries very few hidden details, but Word adds some when it saves: the author name from your Word account, the company field, total editing time, and a revision count. If the document is a job application or anything going to a stranger, have a look before sending. How to remove the author name and edit history from a Word document shows what is in there and how to clear it, and Manatee’s Clean mode strips document author and revision metadata in one step.

Questions

The converted .docx opens but the fonts look different. RTF stores font names, and if the original was written on another machine the fonts may not be installed on yours. Word substitutes the closest match. Select all and set a font you have, or install the missing one.

Can I convert DOCX back to RTF? Yes. TextEdit’s Save As offers Rich Text Document, textutil accepts -convert rtf, and Manatee has RTF as a target. Features RTF cannot represent, like tracked changes, are dropped.

I need plain text, not DOCX. That is the same tools with a different target: textutil -convert txt, TextEdit’s Format menu (Make Plain Text), or TXT in Manatee. How to convert a Word document to plain text on a Mac goes through it.

My old files are .doc rather than .rtf. Same process? Yes, all four methods read .doc as well. How to convert an old .doc to .docx on a Mac covers the specifics, including what to do if Word says the .doc is corrupt.