How does the .doc format work?

Question

I recently learned about the basic structure of the .docx file (it\'s a specially structured zip archive). However, docx is not formated like a doc.

How does a doc file

Answer 1

There's Microsoft Word's .doc and then there's plain text .doc. It sounds like you're wondering about the proprietary Microsoft format.

From Wikipedia:

The DOC format varies among Microsoft Office Word Formats. Word versions up to 97 used a different format from Microsoft Word version between 97 and 2003.

It wasn't until Word 2007 where .docx, although a packaged file, is not necessarily a .zip archive. It is a structured XML document.