#HOW DO YOU GET WORD ON A MAC FOR MAC#
#HOW DO YOU GET WORD ON A MAC MAC OS#

If you have a Google account, such as a gmail account, you can use Google Docs at. There is another free solution to opening Word files on your Mac, and it is one that is not obvious. Here is how NeoOffice 2.2 displays the document (right) compared to the original in Word (left). The second program is actually and off-shoot of the first. The first is OpenOffice, which you can get at. Two open source office programs can be downloaded and installed for free, and both can open and display Word files, including some of the design features. You’ve got some more options if TextEdit doesn’t cut it.

#HOW DO YOU GET WORD ON A MAC FOR MAC#

Here’s an example of a Word document on the left, and the result when you open it up in TextEdit on the right.īut don’t grab your wallet go off and buy Office for Mac yet.

However, don’t expect the layout or design of the document to be intact. So opening them in TextEdit will most likely give you at least a glimpse at the content of the file. Fortunately, the vast majority of Word files that you will get will be rather simple, barely touching on Word’s real power. Word has hundreds of layout and design elements that can do anything from a simple letter to a complete book. But TextEdit is capable of relatively advanced formatting, and can do tricks like, well, open. Long-time computer users might mistake TextEdit for a simple text editor, like Notepad or SimpleText.

#HOW DO YOU GET WORD ON A MAC MAC OS#

The first is to simply use TextEdit, a program that comes with Mac OS X. So how can you open these files?įortunately, a Mac user has many options. But if you are a casual computer user, you probably haven’t invested in Microsoft Office for Mac, which means you don’t have Word. It is certainly available, and even popular among Mac users. doc files to a friend or colleague, forgetting to inquire whether they have or use Microsoft Word.Ī typical Mac user, in fact, won’t have Microsoft Word on their Mac. Occasionally, Windows users decide to forward on one of these. docx files, which is its native file format. And almost all of them have a program called Microsoft Word, which is by far the predominant word processing application. There are an incredible number of Windows PCs in the workplace.

How do you get word on a mac