Open, create and save Word documents
Updated October 21, 2026
Documents is the Word-compatible editor that comes with PDF Studio. Word files open in their own tab, with a ribbon like Word’s.
Open or create a document
- To open one, choose File › Open… (Ctrl+O) and pick a Word file. Documents opens .docx and .doc files, Word templates, and RTF, OpenDocument (.odt), plain text and Markdown files.
- To start a new one, choose File › New Document (Ctrl+N), or New document on the start screen.
Opening a Word template starts a new document based on it; the template itself isn’t changed.
Save
- Press Ctrl+S, or choose Save on the ribbon’s File tab. A document keeps the format it was opened in.
- To save in another format, choose Save As… (Ctrl+Shift+S) and pick one: Word Document (.docx), Word 97-2003 Document (.doc), Rich Text Format, OpenDocument Text, Web Page, Markdown or Plain Text.
A .doc file is saved as a new .docx file, as Word suggests, so the original .doc stays as it was. Choose Word 97-2003 Document in Save As if you need a .doc. A .doc file doesn’t keep comments, headers and footers, footnotes or pictures yet. Use .docx to keep everything.
Make a PDF of it
On the ribbon’s File tab, choose Save as PDF… to save a PDF copy, or Open as PDF to open one in PDF Studio’s PDF tools. Print… (Ctrl+P) is there too.
If something goes wrong
- “This is a Word 6 or Word 95 document.” Only Word 97 and later .doc files can be opened. Open it in a newer version of Word and save it as .docx first.