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How to Open a Word Document in Google Docs

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add a Word Document to Google Drive and open Word Document with Google Docs.

Add a Word Document to Google Drive

To add a Word document to Google drive, navigate to the folder where you want to store the document and click the New button.

click the New button

Select File upload from the menu that appears.

Select File upload from the menu that appears

Select the Word file and click Open to upload.

how to add a word document to google drive
Add a Word document to google drive

You can distinguish a Word document from other file types because Word documents have W in the thumbnail, as shown in the following screen.

Google Docs vs Word

Preview or Edit a Word Document

To preview a Word document, right-click the file and select Preview (press the Esc key to exit the preview mode).

Preview or Edit a Word Document

To open a Word document for editing, right-click the document and click Open with from the menu that appears.

how to open a word document in google docs

From the Open with sub-menu, choose Google Docs.

The Word document opens in a new Tab. The .DOCX label next to the filename confirms this is a Word file, not a Google Doc.

The DOCX label next to the filename confirms this is a Word file

If you want to convert this to Google Docs format, go to the File menu and click Save as Google Docs.

Save Word as Google Docs
Save Word as Google Docs

The converted document will be open in a new tab.