Preview won't open .docx files

TextEdit and Pages can open Word documents. I have never heard of Preview ever being able to.

Try one of the two free apps to open Word files: LibreOffice and SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018. 

Both can open, edit and save Word documents in Word format or their own format and maintain the original formatting of the document.

Q - " Open with Preview" on a .docx file, it will switch to the Preview app without actually opening the document."

A - From the supplied description above, it would appear the user ( you ) is activating the Quick Preview feature in Big Sur and also in Monterey

Quick View

If the user what's to make " Preview " the Default Application to always open the Microsoft Words documents, you will have to change the Default File Association from xxx Application to Preview Application.

If Preview can even do that.

Preview will open Word .doc/.docx documents thru macOS 11.6.6, though the last operating system to provide Preview on the Finder Open With sub-menu was Mojave 10.14.6. I have tested with macOS 10.11.6, 10.13.6, 10.14.6, and the last security update for Catalina 10.15.7 and they all open Word (.doc/.docx) documents in Preview. They will likely also open Excel and Powerpoint documents too as I have done that in the past, but not with all of the mentioned operating systems. Snow Leopard 10.6.8 does not offer this Preview feature.

Here is a screen shot from macOS 11.6.6:

I believe Preview can open doc but not docx files.

Well, I have to correct what I said. I found a couple .docx files that would open in Catalina. Some that wouldn't. In any case, haven't found any that open in Monterey although, they will open in Quick Look. Strange.

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mattrixxAustralia wrote:

Not sure what you are saying?? It will not open in Preview, but if you hit space bar on the file, it will open quicklook showing the file.. but that's it.. doesn't open beyond that.

Refer to earlier posting but incase it was missing here it is again.

Q - " Open with Preview" on a .docx file, it will switch to the Preview app without actually opening the document."

A - From the supplied description above, it would appear the user ( you ) is activating the Quick Preview feature in Big Sur and also in Monterey

Quick View

If the user what's to make " Preview " the Default Application to always open the Microsoft Words documents, you will have to change the Default File Association from xxx Application to Preview Application.

If Preview can even do that.

Why is it strange that Quicklook can show the files? Quicklook can show many types of files. That's what it is supposed to.

If it says "Open in Preview", that is probably because you, the user, set Preview as the default application for it.

On my mac it shows a docx file and says "Open with Microsoft Word", but if I go and change the default application to Pages, or TextEdit, then that is what Quicklook will say, e.g. "Open with Pages".

I just took a docx file and chose Photos as the default (silly, right?). Sure enough, Quicklook did what it is

supposed to do:

FWIW, Preview could not open .docx files as far back as High Sierra, if it ever could.

Not sure what you are saying?? It will not open in Preview, but if you hit space bar on the file, it will open quicklook showing the file.. but that's it.. doesn't open beyond that.

I'm having the problem too. Used to be able to open .docx files in Preview perfectly fine (couldn't edit them, of course, but it made it easier to view one document in Preview and work on another in Word instead of switching between two Word windows). After a software update few months back, Preview no longer showed up in the options when I right-clicked a .docx file and selected Open With, so I'd have to take the extra steps of selecting Other..., telling it to show All Applications instead of just Recommended Applications, and then scrolling down to select Preview. Annoying, but at least I could still make it work. However, I just went through that whole process and while Preview opened as normal, the document didn't. I tried going to Recently Opened within Preview and opening it from there—because yes, I have successfully opened this file in Preview many times in the past—and still had no luck. Not sure what the problem is, or why this functionality seems to have been removed. Very annoying.

Oh wow.. It would be interesting to see why that didn't work for you, at least up until Monterey. Might have given us some ideas on how. I know that's a long time ago (ie High Sierra)

Doesn't even seem like a permissions thing or ... it used to be easy to say, open a particular file type.

It's just kinda weird that it changed, when it used to be so quick and easy.

mattrixxAustralia wrote:

Hey wow, that's really interesting regarding quick look... I just tried that and yes, it worked (12.4) but nope, they won't open as such in Preview.

That just makes all the more strange.

Indeed.

User wrote “ Yes, have done that, but does not work.  This is the most "confusing to read" thread ever!” 

Sorry for suppling you with a copy of an earlier reply, directed to and in response to the Original Owner of this question. 

Technically and AFAIK - Only the Moderator(s) of the Apple Support Community has the ability to Mark a response as Off Topic and then Action it as they see fit.

Anything else is subjective 

I've always used Preview as the default app to open docx (WORD) files.

It's always worked up until Monterey and so much faster than Word or Pages.