Open Word Documents
How to Open a File in Word
Opening a file lets you resume working on a document that you have saved from earlier or that someone else has created and shared with you.
Open a Document
While you can open a document by double-clicking its icon in Windows, you can also browse and open files from within Word.
- Click the File tab.
- Click Open.
The Open screen appears, giving you a few ways to find a document.
- Select a location.
- Recent displays a list of documents that you’ve recently opened.
- Shared with Me will show documents that others have shared with you through your Office 365 account.
- Your OneDrive and SharePoint sites will let you browse through the files stored on those cloud servers, if you have them.
- This PC lets you browse through the Documents folder for files.
- Clicking Browse opens a dialog box, where you can browse through your computer’s folders, drives, and network shares.
- Select the file you want to open.
The selected file opens.
From the Browse dialog box, you’ll need to click the Open button after selecting the file.
Open a PDF for Editing
In addition to opening Word’s regular file formats, you can also open PDF documents for editing.
- Click the File tab.
- Click Open.
- Select and open a PDF file.
A dialog box appears, explaining that opening a PDF in Word converts it to a Word document and opens it as a copy. You’ll be able to edit the text, but some formatting and graphics may look different.
- Click OK.
A copy of the PDF is converted into an editable document, and it opens so that you can edit the text.
