problem in reading Microsoft word as a binary file
 

I need to open a Microsoft word document as a binary file, and read it, but i cann't find the relation of the code of this binary file with this word document, for example, i didn't know where is the end of word document.
I'm very puzzled that i can't find it from Microsoft's web. Who can help me with some documents on the Microsoft word coding format or with the method to find them? Thanks!

Maybe a suggestion on other good forums can also do me a favor!

perhaps the OpenOffice.org sourcecode could help? or maybe they have some docs?

Try this page and look at the files for DOC:
http://www.wotsit.org/search.asp?s=binary

I'm afraid you cannot read binary word DOC files precisely, this is a task which still eludes highly professional developers working on it for years. The format is *extremely* complex - if you have to ask, you probably can't read it.

There is a libwv but this is GPLd. It's also fairly basic. It may help though.

to itsme86:
thank you for your help, I download "Microsoft Word 6.0 Binary File Format", and have read it for a few hours, but I think it's a bit difficult for me, because i'm a begginer. I will continue on reading it, and maybe I still need your help.

to mhearn:
I think I understand your meanings. Yes, I know the format of word DOC file is *extremely* complex, so I don't want to know the every bit of the file.What I want to know is only where is the begin of the document, and where is the end, and if i insert a picture in the document, what changes will happen on the document.

Now I use Microsoft office word 2003. I open the DOC file with Ultraedit, and after many tests, I found the begin of the document is 0x00000a00, and guess(only guess, I don't know the end) the document is stored in binary file in turn, but if I insert a picture or a control button or a macro, I didn't know what will happen, where is the message of these things, what changes happen on the document file. What I want is to know these things, to find the begin and the end of the document, and find the message of the picture, the other messages are not important to me.

After reading "Microsoft Word 6.0 Binary File Format", I think now I have known much more about the binary file format of Microsoft word than before, I have found my questions' answers now. What I need to do is to find as many as docs about all versions of Microsoft word. However, thanks you for all your helps!

Hello, everyone! I'm back for helps. I can't find the binary file format of Microsoft word 2002,2003. I have searched in google, and also gone to OpenOffice.org, but can't found anything useful. Is there somebody know that whether Microsoft Corporation have release this? Who can show me these files? Thanks!

I'm crying:( Why nobody answer me? Is there somebody tell me whether Microsoft Corporation have released these documents?

You might find the src to this: http://search.cpan.org/~janpaz/Docse...n/docclient.pl useful.
See also Perl module WIN32::OLE , http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/perl/word.html , http://www.znark.com/tech/resumeword.html .

The last publically available specs for the office file formats were for Office 97.

I'm afraid the address you found for the start of the document will change from file to file. Your best bet is libwv.

Thank mhearn's help, but what's libwv, where can I get it?
As you say, I haven't found any document for Office versions after 97.

I am developing a software to convert word and excel files to text and vice-versa.
i want to know the format in which word and excel files are stored so that i can call them suitably from a c source code. can someone give me any links for the formats?

i will be much obliged.
thanks