Office Documents
The complete office document and spreadsheet hub. Work with DOCX, PDF, XLSX, CSV, TXT, RTF, ODT, ODS, and all major productivity formats. Fix compatibility issues, convert between formats, and understand every office file type.
Advertisement
Common Office Documents Problems
Diagnose the issue, then fix it with the right tool.
Excel File Shows #VALUE!, #REF!, or #NAME? Errors
Cells in your Excel or XLSX spreadsheet show error codes like #VALUE!, #REF!, #NAME?, or #N/A instead of calculated results.
Word Document Shows Track Changes or Review Markup
Your Word document is showing all the edits, deletions, and comments from Track Changes and you need to accept or hide them.
CSV File Shows Garbled Characters in Excel (Encoding Fix)
CSV file displays ?? or garbled characters instead of accented letters, Asian characters, or special symbols when opened in Excel.
Word Document Shows Wrong Fonts or Garbled Text
A DOCX file opens with fonts substituted, text garbled, or characters showing as squares and question marks.
Word Document Is Corrupted and Cannot Be Opened
Microsoft Word shows "the file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents" or "Word experienced an error trying to open the file".
Excel File Is Corrupted and Cannot Be Opened
Excel shows "the file is corrupt and cannot be opened" or "we found a problem with some content in filename.xlsx".
Deep-Dive Guides
Understand the why behind every fix.
Office Documents How-To Guides
Step-by-step walkthroughs for common office documents tasks.
How to Open a CSV File in Excel Without Formatting Issues
Open CSV files in Excel while preserving leading zeros, special characters, and correct column formatting.
How to Convert Excel to PDF (XLSX to PDF, Free Methods)
Export Excel spreadsheets to PDF format for sharing, printing, or archiving without losing formatting.
How to Convert Word to PDF (5 Ways, Free)
Complete guide to converting DOCX to PDF on Windows, macOS, and online — with tips to ensure fonts and layout are preserved.
Office Documents Comparisons
Side-by-side breakdowns to help you choose the right format or tool.
CSV vs XLSX — Plain Data vs Rich Spreadsheet Format
CSV is universal plain text data; XLSX is a full-featured spreadsheet. Here is which format to use for your data workflow.
DOCX vs ODT — Microsoft Word vs Open Standard
DOCX is the universal office document standard. ODT is the open ISO alternative. Here is when each is the right choice.
Office Documents File Formats
Detailed reference pages for every office documents format.
CSV (.csv)
Comma-Separated Values — the simplest and most universal data exchange format. Stores tabular data as plain text rows, readable by every spreadsheet application and database.
DOC (.doc)
Microsoft Word's legacy binary document format used from 1983 to 2007. Still widely circulated in older archives and legal documents before the DOCX transition.
DOCX (.docx)
Microsoft Word's Open XML format — the standard for editable document exchange.
ODS (.ods)
OpenDocument Spreadsheet format from the LibreOffice ecosystem. ISO-standardised, vendor-neutral alternative to XLSX for spreadsheet data.
ODT (.odt)
OpenDocument Text format from the LibreOffice/OpenOffice ecosystem. ISO-standardised, vendor-neutral alternative to DOCX for text documents.
RTF (.rtf)
Rich Text Format — a formatted document standard from 1987. Stores basic text formatting (bold, italic, fonts, colours) in a human-readable plain-text encoding understood by virtually every word processor.
TXT (.txt)
Plain text format containing only unformatted characters. The most universal file format — readable by every program on every platform without any special software.
XLS (.xls)
Microsoft Excel's legacy binary spreadsheet format used from 1987 to 2007. Contains formulas, charts, and multiple worksheets in a proprietary binary structure.
XLSX (.xlsx)
Microsoft Excel's Open XML spreadsheet format — the standard for numerical data, tables, and calculations.