How to Change Word to Txt

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1 Open your Word document.

2 Click the File menu.

3 Select "Save As" from the menu.

4 Name the document.

5 Save the document as plain text.

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Last Updated: June 6, 2022

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Text, or .txt files generally don't have formatting, but are much smaller than MS Word documents. They are ideal for e-mail or posting to the web. Programing files are almost universally written in plain text format, and are often used to store notes or CSS and HTML files.

Steps

1

Open your Word document.

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1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/92\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/92\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-1.jpg\/aid1454158-v4-728px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":259,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":410,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
   Double-click your Word document to open it in Word. Alternatively, you can open it in any application that supports Word docs, including Corel WordPerfect or OpenOffice.
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2

Click the File menu.

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1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-2.jpg\/aid1454158-v4-728px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":162,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":257,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
   You'll see the File menu at the top-left corner. On some versions of Word, it will be a big round button with four colored boxes.

3

Select "Save As" from the menu.

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1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/9\/92\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/9\/92\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-3.jpg\/aid1454158-v4-728px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":274,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":434,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
   This tells the application to create a new document. If another menu opens before you get a chance to enter a file name, click text document, .txt, or similar.
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4

Name the document.

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1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/7\/70\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-4.jpg\/v4-460px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-4.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/7\/70\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-4.jpg\/aid1454158-v4-728px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-4.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":260,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":412,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
   Type a new name for your file. It can have the same name as your old document, as you'll be giving it a different file extension.

5

Save the document as plain text.

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1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/8\/87\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-5.jpg\/v4-460px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-5.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/8\/87\/Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-5.jpg\/aid1454158-v4-728px-Change-Word-to-Txt-Step-5.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":267,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":422,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative Commons<\/a><br>\n<\/p><p><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
   Select a plain text file type under the document name box. Choose .txt, text, plain text, ASCII, UNICODE, or similar, and then click Save.
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  Is a txt file 508 compliant?

  

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  Yes.

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Tips

• You can right click and then click on "new" then "Notepad Document" in Microsoft Windows to create a new txt document.
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• Notepad and Wordpad are two programs that are usually installed on Microsoft Windows computers and are used to edit and create plain text documents.
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• You can also open plain text documents in almost every word processing software.
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