Word file compatibility between mac and pc I'm thinking of buying a mac but I am a bit worried about how mac will handle word files from a windows machine. I have a number of word files in both .doc and .docx format.

Does anyone know if there might be any problems opening these kind of files and, equally important, preserve the formatting and styles on a mac?

I will be using Microsoft word on the mac.
Does anyone know if there might be any problems opening these kind of files?


You won't have any problems. With the pre-installed Pages app on Mac, you can easily open any .docx and .doc files. They will be converted to .pages documents that can't be opened on Windows PCs, but you can easily export any documents from Pages as .docx files that can be opened on PCs.

An easier solution is to use the web-based Google Drive (née Google Docs) that will let you natively open .docx, sync them to your Google account on all your computers, and edit them from anywhere, including your Mac. Or, if you'd prefer the Microsoft-based approach, you can download the Office suite onto your Mac, which works just how it does on PCs.


  Can I preserve the formatting and styles on a mac?


I've had no problems preserving format and styling of a .docx document on Mac, using Pages or Google Drive. You will have no problems with a modern program like the ones I've suggested above.



tl;dr: You can totally use Pages, Google Drive, or Word on your Mac to open, edit, and export documents without losing any formatting.