Word to Text

Word to Text is a free online tool that converts a Word document, .doc or .docx, into a plain text file, stripping out formatting and leaving just the words. Whether you want to convert word to text, need a word to text converter, want word to txt, or are looking to turn a word to text file or word to text document into something simpler, the job is the same: upload your document, let the tool convert it, and download the plain text. This also covers a doc to text or word doc to txt request, or converting word file to txt in general. There is no software to install, you convert word to text online for free, directly in your browser.

How to Convert a Word Document to Text Online

• 1

  Upload Your Word File

  Open Word to Text and choose the .doc or .docx file you want to convert.

• 2

  Let the Tool Convert It

  The tool extracts the text from your document automatically.

• 3

  Download Your Text File

  Get your plain text file, ready to use, paste, or edit anywhere.

Your original document is not overwritten by the process, the text result is delivered as a separate file. This works no matter how you phrase the request, whether you write word convert to text, convert word to txt, convert word file to text, convert word file to txt, convert word to text file, convert word to text document, or convert word document to text, and whether you want a word to txt file, a word to txt file converter, a word to text file converter, or simply word from text, the same three steps apply.

Why Use the File Tools Online Word to Text Converter

What Happens to Formatting When You Convert to Text?

Converting to plain text is a different kind of conversion from most other document tools on this site, and it is worth being upfront about the trade-off. Plain text, a .txt file, has no concept of bold, italics, headings, tables, fonts, colors, or page layout, it is just characters. When you convert a Word document to text, all of that formatting is deliberately stripped away, what remains is the words themselves, in reading order.

Other document tools on this site that go from Word or a similar office format, like word-pdf, are confirmed to use LibreOffice and preserve tables, headers, footers, and fonts. It is likely, though not directly confirmed for this specific tool, that Word to Text also uses the same LibreOffice engine as its docx family siblings for reading the document, extracting text specifically is a simpler, more reliable operation than converting to a format like HTML or PDF, since there is no layout to reproduce, just the underlying words. The trade-off is that you lose all formatting on purpose, not that the conversion is unreliable.

This is worth contrasting with the other document tools in this toolkit. Word to HTML and Word to PDF both aim to keep your document looking close to the original, headings stay headings, tables stay tables, bold stays bold. Word to Text does the opposite on purpose, it throws all of that away and gives you the bare words, which is exactly what you want when formatting is in the way rather than part of the point.

Common Uses for Converting Word to Text

Stripping a Word document down to plain text comes up for a range of practical reasons.

• Pasting Into a Plain Text FieldGet clean text for a form, code comment, or plain text email.
• Removing Hidden Formatting IssuesStrip out leftover styles and formatting quirks from a messy document.
• Preparing Text for Another ProgramFeed the raw words into a script, database, or text based tool.
• Reducing File Size for StorageA plain text file is far smaller than the original Word document.
• Making Content Universally ReadableOpen the words in literally any text editor, on any device.
• Checking Word Count or Raw ContentReview just the words, without formatting distracting from the content itself.

Related File Tools

Looking to Create a Word Document From Text Instead?

A large share of searches in this general area are actually the opposite of what this tool does, someone has a piece of text, a .txt file, or just typed content, and wants a proper Word document out of it, rather than the other way around. If that is what you meant by text to word, txt to word, convert text to word, convert txt to word, .txt to word, text document to word, text file to word, text to word document, text to word converter, txt to word converter, or any similar phrasing, including the more general to word, convert a word, convert into word, convert it to word, or convert it to microsoft word, the tool you want is Text to Word, not this one. This page, Word to Text, only goes in the direction of taking an existing Word document and stripping it down to plain text.

The same redirect applies to convert text to word document, convert text file to word, convert text document to word, convert text to word doc, txt file to word, text converter for word, and online text to word converter, along with less common phrasings like convert txt to word document, convert txt file to word document, convert text into word document, and convert field to text in word. All of these describe turning text into a Word document, the reverse of what this page does.

Which Word Formats Can I Convert?

Both the older .doc format and the current .docx format are the expected baseline for this converter. If your file is in a different document format, converting it to Word first, or using a format specific tool like ODT to PDF, is a reliable alternative route before extracting the text.

Can I Get My Formatting Back Later?

Your original Word document is never overwritten by this tool, so you always keep a fully formatted copy. Once you have a plain text file, though, the formatting is genuinely gone from that file, a .txt file cannot store bold text, headings, or tables, there is nothing to restore. If you need the formatting back, go to your saved original document rather than trying to reconstruct it from the text file.

No Software to Install: Convert Word to Text Online

Converting a Word document to plain text used to mean opening Word itself and using its Save As Plain Text option, or copying and pasting into a text editor by hand. Word to Text on File Tools Online skips all of that. There is nothing to download and nothing to install, whether you are on Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone, you upload your document directly in your browser and get your text file back.

Tips for Best Results

• Use this when you specifically want the formatting removed, if you want to keep formatting, use Word to HTML or Word to PDF instead.
• Check the output for headers, footers, or footnotes, these sometimes end up out of their original reading position once formatting is stripped.
• Keep your original document saved separately, formatting cannot be recovered from the plain text file afterward.
• Tables in the original document usually become plain rows of text once converted, review these sections most closely.
• Whether multiple documents can be converted in one batch is not confirmed without testing the tool directly.
• If you only need to remove a small amount of formatting rather than all of it, copying and pasting into a plain text editor by hand may be faster than converting the whole file for a short document.

Works on Windows, Mac, and Mobile

Because Word to Text runs entirely in your browser, it works the same way regardless of your device or operating system. Convert a .doc or .docx file to plain text on a Windows PC, a Mac, an Android phone, or an iPhone without installing anything or needing Microsoft Word.

About the File Tools Online Word to Text Converter

File Tools Online is a collection of free, browser based tools for working with audio, video, PDF, and document files, built for people who need a quick, reliable result without installing software. Word to Text is one part of a larger set of document tools, so once your file is stripped down to plain text, you still have Word to HTML, Word to PDF, and the other tools in the same toolkit for your original formatted document.

Converting a Word document to plain text used to mean opening Word itself and using its Save As Plain Text option, then cleaning up whatever oddities that process left behind. Browser based conversion makes that same result available in a couple of clicks, for pasting into forms, feeding into other software, or just getting a lighter, simpler copy of a document's words.

As with the other tools in the toolkit, files are handled over HTTPS and removed from our servers automatically within 30 minutes, so there is nothing left behind to manage or clean up after you get your result.