Do you have some 20 year old documents that you created in Microsoft Word? Are you aware that today’s version of Microsoft Word likely can’t open them? If you have older Word documents that are important to you, please consider converting them to an open format file type such as PDF/A, so you’ll be to open them more easily in the future. Every so often clients ask me for help opening old Word files. Here are a couple of methods that one can use, as of mid-2024, to open files created in older versions of word like Word 98, Word X and Word 2004. I wasn’t able to test if these applications can open Word 5 or Word 6 files.

The two ways I’ve found to open 20 year old Word files are LibreOffice and Zamzar. LibreOffice is a free and open source application that is supported by donations. Zamzar is a web-based file conversion service. Zamzar lets you convert a couple of files for free, beyond that you’ll need to pay for a subscription.

Once you open an older Word file using LibreOffice, I recommend saving the file in as PDF/A files since this is an open format file type. A recent article from Wired talks about the importance of saving older files in open format file types as opposed to a proprietary file format such as Word’s .doc or .docx formats. PDF/A is a file format designed for long-term storage of electronic files. It creates a self-contained file type.

Zamzar lets you convert many kinds of files, including older Word files. Zamzar offers regular PDF, but not PDF/A, as a destination file type. Thus, if you want to get your files into PDF/A format then you’ll need to perform a second file conversation. You could open the PDF file that you get from Zamzar using Apple’s Preview application. Then use Preview’s Export command to convert the file to PDF/A format.