Convert Word (DOCX) to Rich Text
Free online converter for Word (DOCX) files. Portable formatted text interchange format. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.
Drag and drop your files
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Upload a Word (DOCX) file to convert it to Rich Text. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.
Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.
About DOCX and RTF
Word (DOCX) .docx
Word's modern format: a ZIP archive of XML parts describing text, styles and layout. It has been the default since Office 2007.
Good for
- Built for editing — text flows and restyles freely
- Tracked changes, comments and styles
- Opens in Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and Pages
Trade-offs
- Layout shifts between applications and font sets
- Not a reliable final-delivery format — use PDF for that
- Complex documents can lose fidelity between editors
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Rich Text .rtf
Rich Text Format: formatted text stored as readable plain text markup. A lowest common denominator that almost every word processor understands.
Good for
- Opens in essentially any word processor, on any platform
- Keeps basic formatting where plain text cannot
- Human-readable if you open it in an editor
Trade-offs
- Much larger than DOCX for the same content
- No modern layout features
- Images balloon the file size
application/rtf
DOCX and RTF side by side
| DOCX | RTF | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Zipped XML | Plain text markup |
| Animation | No | No |
| Typically used for | Documents still being written or reviewed | Exchange between unlike word processors |
What changes when you convert DOCX to RTF
Rendered by LibreOffice
The conversion runs through headless LibreOffice — the same engine behind the desktop suite, not a lookalike parser. It handles ordinary documents faithfully. Where it can drift is on the elaborate: a document leaning on fonts the server does not have will have them substituted, and the substitute rarely occupies exactly the same width, so line and page breaks can move. Heavily designed layouts are worth checking against the original.
RTF carries less than it looks like it does
Rich Text Format dates from 1987 and exists so that any word processor can open a file with its formatting broadly intact. Bold, italics, fonts and simple tables survive. Modern structure does not: tracked changes, comments, footnotes in some layouts and anything embedded tend to be dropped or flattened. Choose it for interchange with something old, not as a working format.
Comments and tracked changes
Editorial metadata is the first thing to go in a format conversion: comments, tracked changes and revision history rarely have an equivalent in RTF and are generally dropped or flattened into the text. Treat the output as a clean copy of the current state of the document. If the review history matters, keep the DOCX alongside it.
Other Word (DOCX) conversions
Other ways to get Rich Text
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