What is a DOT file
The DOT file extension is linked to the word processing application created by Microsoft Word. It is a template format that consists of pre-formatted settings, defining the header or footer of a document, margins, font style and site, and other common formatting styles known from word processing applications. DOT files enable the user to create multiple documents with the exact same formatting, giving them an identical or at least similar look. This is very useful for company correspondence via letters or memos, and often used for invoices.
DOT is primarily associated with the 'Word' program which was developed by the Microsoft Corporation. Some commonly used templates are already included in Microsoft's text processing application, but the user can create and save own ones as well. When opening and editing a DOT file, a copy is created when the user attempts to save the document. Thus, the template file itself, in most cases, stays untouched.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open DOT documents:
- Microsoft Word 2013
- Microsoft Works
- Apache OpenOffice
- Planamesa NeoOffice
- Microsoft Word Viewer
