Difference between a .doc file and a .docx file

What is the difference between a .doc file and a .docx file?  Why is this difference relevant to XML?

# Initially, both are Microsoft Word document files, they were developed for Microsoft word distribution in the office suite. ".docx" is the file extension that newer Microsoft Word version uses like Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010, while the older versions like Microsoft 2003 save word files as ".doc" files. The biggest benefits of the new file format is that it is open, which means it can be read by applications other than Microsoft Word that support XML.

The difference between .doc files and .docx files is a letter “x”, which indicates the use of XML for its creation which was created by Microsoft for MS Office 2007.  It has been designed on the structural design of XML and its uses Zip compression scheme to condense the size of a file. We can find many advantages of using the XML technology. In latest version of Microsoft Office 2007, XML based Office replaced the binary file format as the default. The filename extensions for that format are .docx or .docm. The most recent version Microsoft Office 2010 is supported by Office 2007 and it also uses the similar format. The original uses for the extension have largely departed from the PC world.

Usually, Microsoft Word saved .docx extension file typically in XML format. It is not compatible with non-XML versions of Word (older than 2007) although I believed that Microsoft offers a plugin for older versions which allows to read XML documents with previous versions of Word.

Basically, DOC files often contain more text formatting information in compare to files using other document file formats such as Rich Text Format and HyperText Markup Language, but are generally less widely compatible. Depending on the task, we can choose the application that we would like to. Such as, if we wish to create a document with many pages which can be shared with other people than those that Microsoft software, and then we need to choose Microsoft Word and organize a DOC file.

           

Microsoft Word 2007 uses the latest format of filename extension which is .docx and the earlier version makes use of .doc format. There are some advantages to .docx but the normal person would not notice them. We can found a converter online to change .docx to .doc from Microsoft.