A DOC file is a word processing document created by Microsoft Word, or another word processing program, such as OpenOffice Writer or Apple Pages. It may contain formatted text, images, tables, graphs, charts, page formatting, and print settings.

DOC files are used to create a variety of documents including letters, resumes, essays, and invitations. When you create a document in Word you can choose to save it in the DOC file format. The program then creates a DOC file to store the contents of the document, which can be closed and opened again for further editing. When you are done editing your DOC file you can print it or save it as another file such as .PDF or .DOT.

The DOC file was designated as Microsoft Word’s primary format in 1983. DOC files were saved in the same format up until Word 97 when another version of the binary format was introduced and used by Microsoft Word 97 to 2003. In 2006, the DOC file format was replaced by the .DOCX file format with the release of Microsoft Word 2007. DOCX files store documents in the OpenXML format.

Word is the most popular word processing application in the world. It comes with every edition of the Microsoft Office suite and is used in home, academic, and business environments.