Open Word Documents

How to Open a File in Word

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Open Word Documents

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.

  1. Click the File tab.
    Open a Document
  2. Click Open.

    The Open screen appears, giving you a few ways to find a document.

  3. 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.
  4. Select the file you want to open.
    Open a Document

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.

  1. Click the File tab.
    Open a PDF for Editing
  2. Click Open.
  3. Select and open a PDF file.
    Open a PDF for Editin

    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.

  4. Click OK.
    Open a PDF for Editin

A copy of the PDF is converted into an editable document, and it opens so that you can edit the text.