I'm writing this after yet another Microsoft Word DOCX file was sent my way without someone asking if that file format would work for me. Sigh.

The first thing I tried was a search for free docx to doc conversion. The sites that ranked for that keyword had poop. One had very nasty comments from people who were angry because they arrived looking for free and two of the links the other site suggested cost money for the conversion, one a lot of money.

I wasted time trying one because they did not try to charge you until after you uploaded your file. Another they suggested just flat out did not work.

So I kept looking. I finally found a solution that was actually free and worked but it was not online.

Microsoft has a Word file viewer (free - really) and a file format converter (free - really). I've only tested them on Windows XP.

And they worked:

Word Viewer

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

You may be able to get by with just the compatibility pack if you already have Word on your computer or you may need both.

You are welcome! ;)

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