What Word to Text does
Extract the plain text from a Word document (.docx) into a .txt file: the words, in order, with paragraph breaks and nothing else — no fonts, colours, tables borders, images, headers or tracked-change noise. It is the fastest way to get a document's content into a script, a text editor, a translation tool, a search index, a language model or a system that cannot read Word files. The document is parsed in your browser; it is never uploaded.
What is kept and what is dropped
| Word element | In the text file |
|---|---|
| Paragraphs and headings | One line each, separated by a blank line |
| Lists | Each item on its own line (bullets and numbers are not written) |
| Tables | Cell text, row by row, cells separated by tabs |
| Bold, italic, fonts, colours | Dropped |
| Images, charts, shapes | Dropped |
| Headers, footers, footnotes, comments | Dropped (main body only) |
| Tracked changes | The accepted text (insertions kept, deletions removed) |
| Hyperlinks | Link text only |
| Encoding | UTF-8, so every language and symbol survives |
Why plain text
- Universality. Every program on every platform opens .txt — including tools that choke on .docx, such as many command-line utilities, old systems and some email clients.
- Size. A 2 MB Word file with a logo in the header becomes a 30 KB text file.
- Clean input. Word counts, diff tools, spell checkers, regex searches and language models all work better on text with no markup.
- Privacy. The text carries none of the document's metadata — author, revision history, template path.
Common uses
- Pasting a document's content into a web form, a CMS or a chat tool without Word's hidden formatting.
- Preparing text for machine translation or for an AI assistant.
- Building a corpus for search, analysis or a word-frequency study.
- Comparing two versions of a document with a text diff.
- Reading a document on a device or a program that lacks Word support.
- Archiving content in a format that will be readable indefinitely.
Related tools
- Word to HTML keeps headings, lists, links and emphasis as HTML if you need structure.
- Word to PDF produces a fixed-layout document with selectable text.
- PDF to TXT does the same extraction for PDF files.
- The Word Counter and Text Tools on this site work directly on the extracted text.
Frequently asked questions
Does it support .doc (Word 97–2003)?
No — only .docx. Open the .doc in Word, LibreOffice or Google Docs and save it as .docx first.
Where are my footnotes and comments?
Only the main body is extracted. Copy footnotes separately from Word if you need them.
How are tables represented?
Each row is a line; cells are separated by tabs, which spreadsheet programs can import.
Is the text in the right order for multi-column layouts?
Yes. Word stores text in reading order regardless of how columns display, so extraction is reliable — unlike PDF.
Can I convert many files at once?
Select several .docx files; each becomes a .txt, delivered in a ZIP.
Is my document uploaded?
No. The .docx is unpacked and read with mammoth in your browser.