Antiword
Software reader
title: "Antiword" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["document-viewers", "cross-platform-free-software", "free-pdf-software"] description: "Software reader" topic_path: "general/document-viewers" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiword" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Software reader ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Antiword |
| logo | Antiword-logo.png |
| screenshot | Antiword-screenshot.png |
| screenshot size | 200px |
| caption | Antiword displaying the GPL from a Word document with head |
| developer | Adri van Os |
| latest_release_version | 0.37 |
| latest_release_date | |
| operating_system | Cross-platform |
| license | GPL |
| website | |
| repo | |
| :: |
| name = Antiword | logo = Antiword-logo.png | screenshot = Antiword-screenshot.png | screenshot size = 200px | caption = Antiword displaying the GPL from a Word document with head | developer = Adri van Os | latest_release_version = 0.37 | latest_release_date = | operating_system = Cross-platform | license = GPL | website = | repo =
Antiword is a free software reader for proprietary Microsoft Word documents, and is available for most computer platforms. Antiword can convert the documents from Microsoft Word version 2, 6, 7, 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 to plain text, PostScript, PDF, and XML/DocBook (experimental).
Overview
The Word format is proprietary and only officially supported on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Reading the format on other systems can be difficult or impossible. Antiword was created to support reading this format on these systems.
Using the plain text output of Antiword, a Word document can be processed and filtered using shell scripts traditional text tools such as diff and grep. It can also be used to filter Word document spam.
Development has stagnated and no official release has been made since 2005.
As of 2024, the web site www.winfield.demon.nl has disappeared. However, a copy of the source code is now available as .
References
References
- Barr, Joe. (March 7, 2005). "CLI Magic: Antiword".
- Yarden, Jonathan (January 31, 2005). "[https://www.zdnet.com/article/dont-let-hidden-application-data-expose-your-companys-secrets/ Don't let hidden application data expose your company's secrets"]. [https://pdfguru.com/organize-pdf ''ZDNET'']. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
- Hardin, John D.. "Word doc spam".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::