Another method I like is to email the person back and let them know about their faux pas.

And almost all of them have a program called Microsoft Word, which is by far the predominant word processing application.

Word creates.doc or.docx files, which is its native file format.

Occasionally, Windows users decide to forward on one of these.doc files to a friend or colleague, forgetting to inquire whether they have or use Microsoft Word.

A typical Mac user, in fact, wont have Microsoft Word on their Mac.

So how can you open these files Fortunately, a Mac user has many options.

The first is to simply use TextEdit, a program that comes with Mac OS X.

Long-time computer users might mistake TextEdit for a simple text editor, like Notepad or SimpleText.

But TextEdit is capable of relatively advanced formatting, and can do tricks like, well, open.doc files.

But TextEdit is no Word.

Word has hundreds of layout and design elements that can do anything from a simple letter to a complete book.

Fortunately, the vast majority of Word files that you will get will be rather simple, barely touching on Words real power.

So opening them in TextEdit will most likely give you at least a glimpse at the content of the file.

However, dont expect the layout or design of the document to be intact.

Heres an example of a Word document on the left, and the result when you open it up in TextEdit on the right.

Two open source office programs can be downloaded and installed for free, and both can open and display Word files, including some of the design features.

The first is OpenOffice, which you can get at The second is NeoOffice, which is at The second program is actually and off-shoot of the first.

Here is how NeoOffice 2.2 displays the document (right) compared to the original in Word (left).

There is another free solution to opening Word files on your Mac, and it is one that is not obvious.

If you have a Google account, such as a gmail account, you can use Google Docs at This is an online office suite that is completely free and includes its own powerful word processor, which you can use right in your Web browser.

You can also upload.doc files and Google will instantly convert them for you.

You can then see the contents, though they look a lot like the do in TextEdit, without the design elements.

Now, if you do want to spend some money, you could always go for Microsoft Office for Mac, which naturally gives you the best compatibility.

You can also use Pages, part of Apples own office suite iWork.

But the idea is to be able to open a.doc file that you get in an email without much hassle.

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