[selmasky1]

I got a new mac book air many months ago, and love it. However, I can't open any documents that are sent to me from a PC like those with doc extension. How do I this? TIA Selma

[seanc]

You need Microsoft Office, or the free alternative, Open Office.

Since this is to do with an application and not the MacBook Air, I'm moving it to applications.

[olePigeon]

Or iWork. I'd recommend Office, though.

[selmasky1]

I have Microsoft office. I open word before opening document and it doesn't work. Any ideas?

[Chuckit]

TextEdit, which is included with every Mac, should be able to open normal Microsoft Word .doc files. Are you sure this is .doc files and not, say, .docx? What happens?

[TETENAL]

TextEdit also should be able to open Word documents (it's just not as good in preserving formatting as Word or Pages).

Drag the document onto the Dock icon of Word, Pages or TextEdit. If it doesn't let you hold down the command and option key to force it. Alternatively select File->Open from the program and select the document.

Edit (for Chuckit): TextEdit in Leopard and Pages 'o8 also open docx.

[selmasky1]

Thank you guys! I finally did it. Tetenal thanks for the detailed instructions, that is how I finally figured it out.

Thanks,

Selma

[roller]

Originally Posted by olePigeon 

Or iWork. I'd recommend Office, though.

I have to disagree. More and more, I find myself ignoring Office in favor of Pages. I have stopped installing Office altogether in my lab, but do have a copy on one or two, in the rare case that I ever need it.

[ginoledesma]

If you need to work with these documents and compatibility (preserving formatting, structure, etc) is a higher requirement, I'd recommend NeoOffice, a free office suite for the Mac using OpenOffice.

If you just need to open/view documents, TextEdit is the second fastest way of doing so (only slightly slower than Leopard's Quick Look). There are limitations, however (such as not preserving numbered lists).