How do I know if my document is .doc .docx .rtf or .txt to upload into Blackboard?

Answered By: Arnetta Henderson

Last Updated: Dec 13, 2019 Views: 16229

To find a file type on a PC, go to This PC> Documents (or wherever you saved the document)> right click on document> select properties. Alternatively you can change the view of the folder to details and all fill types will be listed.

The .doc file extension is a file saved in Word 97-2003 format. The .docx file extension is a file saved in Word 2007- 2016 format.

If you do not have Microsoft Word on your computer then you would have to save the file as a type as text file (.txt) or a rich text file (.rtf), in order to upload it to Backboard and this can be done using any text editor, including Google Docs, which is free for anyone to use, you'll just need a free Gmail account.

If you open your Word docs in Google docs you can go to File> Download and choose multiple formats, including .rtf and .txt.

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Microsoft Word

Comments (2)

This doesn't tell anyone how to determine the format of their document. Please provide specific steps. For example I, along with millions of other people apparently, am running into major problems with the new Catalina update for Mac. It no longer supports Word unless you buy a subscription to Microsoft Office. I can't attach old Word docs to anything, so I need to retype in Pages (Mac's version of Word). I don't know what the format is, but I know it's not .docx or .pdf because I can't attach it to anything.

by Jess on Dec 12, 2019
Hi Jess. Your're right, that would be helpful. I will put up steps for PC, but we don't have MACs and like you I have not found anything that gives steps for identifying file types in Catalina.

However I do have a suggestion. If you open your Word docs in Google docs (https://docs.google.com/) you can go to File> Download and choose multiple formats, including some that Pages should be able to read such as .rtf and .txt. You should then be able to open in Pages and at least save yourself from having to re type everything.

If you don't already have one, you'll need to create a free gmail account.

by Kathryn Park on Dec 13, 2019