rtf files” option to have that app become the default. And you can select the “Always use this app to open.
It shows a list of apps that can open RTF files.
#Change rich text format to.doc windows
Here’s the window that pops up when you do that in Windows (macOS is similar). On Windows or macOS, just right-click the file and you’ll see an “Open With” command or something similar for picking the app you want to use. If you prefer that RTF files open with a different app than the one currently set as the default, that’s easy enough.
#Change rich text format to.doc install
Note: And while there’s not a built-in RTF editor in most Linux distros, you can certainly install something like LibreOffice. For example, even on a fresh install of Windows, double-clicking an RTF files opens it right up in WordPad. And unless you’ve installed something else (like Microsoft Word), those apps will be the default for opening RTF files. In macOS, you can use Apple TextEdit or Apple Pages. Google Docs does let you edit RTF files, though.Īnd most operating systems have a built-in editor that can open RTF files. Most file syncing services-like Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive-have built in viewers that let you at least read an RTF file, even if you can’t edit there. To start with, if you’ve got any word processing app installed-Microsoft Word, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, AbiWord, and so on-you can open an RTF file with it. You almost certainly have an app already built-in or installed on your system for opening RTF files. The first thing to try is just double-clicking (or tapping on mobile) to open the RTF file directly. Microsoft discontinued the development of RTF in 2008, but it’s still widely supported by apps on almost every operating system. It’s also widely used in other types of apps, such as email clients. With most word processors being able to read and write an RTF file, this means if you create one on Windows, then you’ll be able to send it to a colleague who uses macOS, or Linux, without encountering any problems. It was also incorporated as the default format used by Windows’ built-in WordPad app-a lightweight word processor.īefore they were superseded by HTML files, RTF was also used as the basis for the Windows help files. It was intended as a universal format that could be used by most word processors, making it easier for people to share Word documents with people who don’t use Word. RTF was created by the Microsoft Word team back in the 1980’s. They are great for cross-platform document sharing because they are supported by lots of apps. While a normal text file stores only plain text, RTF files can include extra information about font style, formatting, images, and more. RTF file extension is a Rich Text Format file.