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Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
Updated on September 11, 2023A document converter is a type of file converter that changes one kind of document file format—such as PDF, XLSX, DOCX, TIF, or TXT—into another type. If you're unable to open or edit a document because you don't have a program that supports it, converters can help.
Every program listed below is free to use. I haven't included any trialware or shareware converters.
I prefer Zamzar for converting documents because it works online and supports many common word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and other document formats. A big plus is that it can convert files that are as large as 50 MB.
It also supports document to MP3 conversion, meaning it functions as an online text-to-speech tool. Several image formats are also supported as output options for many types of files, as is the SWF video format.
Not all output formats are available for all input formats. For example, you can't convert DOC to PUB.
Zamzar will work with any operating system that supports a web browser, such as all versions of Windows, Linux, and macOS. All you need to do is upload the file to the site from your computer, a URL, or a file storage site like Dropbox or OneDrive.
I've used this website for countless file conversions, and I always find myself returning to it because it just works.
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FileZigZag is another online document converter service that will convert most common document, spreadsheet, and other similar formats.
This website also accepts several image formats as inputs and outputs, but does not act as an OCR tool. There are also several input formats I listed above that don't export to every output format.
I like that FileZigZag is so simple to use, and on top of that, it can convert large document files (really large documents if you pay).
Much like Zamzar, this site can be used from any web browser on any operating system.
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Doxillion is another free document converter that supports popular file types. Unlike the two converters above, this is an actual program you have to install to your computer before you can convert any files.
This is a good option if your document is large or if you want to convert lots of files at once. You can import whole folders full of files, or just choose specific files.
Up to three right-click menus can be added to File Explorer. This is incredibly helpful because it lets you right-click a file and convert it quickly without having to first open Doxillion.
This program is said to run on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP, plus macOS 13 through 10.5.
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Filestar is a desktop program that supports hundreds of file types, including several document file formats. It's incredibly easy to use and includes some super handy automation features, such as a desktop shortcut that you can drag files into to convert them to a pre-set format without ever opening the software.
One benefit this program provides over some of these other ones is that you can use their websites to see exactly which file formats Filestar works with, before you even download the software.
I also like that this converter lets me open files by dragging them into the program window, pasting them from the clipboard, or loading them from a URL or path on my computer.
A huge advantage over similar document file converters are the automation options. In addition to the example I gave above, Filestar lets you convert files with a hotkey, trigger folder, or command line script.
As cool as those features are, Filestar has two major limitations that are lifted only if you pay: you're limited to converting 10 files per month, and you can't convert files in batch.
Filestar runs on Windows and macOS.
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Another installable document file converter is this one from AVS4YOU, aptly called AVS Document Converter. The output formats consist of the popular DOCX and PDF formats, but also some image file formats.
Depending on the output format you choose, there are a number of customizations you can tweak if you want to. For example, when converting a file to PDF, you can add a watermark and even merge PDFs into one file or extract pages from a PDF. However, when converting to an eBook format, there's an option to save the cover image and embed fonts.
Compared to Doxillion, I prefer the way this program looks, but they're both great desktop options. I used it on Windows 11, but it works in older versions, too, back through Windows XP.
