How to read Word .doc files?

Question

How can we read Microsoft Word (.doc) files in a Linux system? It doesn't support .doc files. I tried

strings filename.doc | less

but it gives ugly output. Any other option?

I would prefer a GUI based tool.

Answer 1

If you want a graphical solution, then you might be able to open them with Open Office or Libre Office.

There's also antiword

Antiword is a free MS Word reader for Linux and RISC OS. There are ports to FreeBSD, BeOS, OS/2, Mac OS X, Amiga, VMS, NetWare, Plan9, EPOC, Zaurus PDA, MorphOS, Tru64/OSF, Minix, Solaris and DOS. Antiword converts the binary files from Word 2, 6, 7, 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 to plain text and to PostScript.

catdoc -

Catdoc is a MS Word file decoding tool that doesn't attempt to analyze file formatting (it just extracts readable text), but is able to handle all versions of Word and convert character encodings.

And a couple of other options mentioned here (linux.com).

Answer 2

I've found Abiword to be one of the more adept at handling word files on Linux. The formatting isn't always as close as Libre Office (the big boy on the block and your main bet) but what does come through usually ends up in a cleaner more usable format.

Answer 3

I'd add docx2txt to the list - mainly for reading the cursed new .docx format (Late$t $tandard^tm).