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You received a .doc file — the old Microsoft Word format that ruled office computing from 1983 to 2007. It's a proprietary binary format that Word could always read perfectly and everything else could only approximate. If you're still getting .doc files, they're either very old documents or from someone who hasn't updated their software in fifteen years.
The .doc format stored text, formatting, images, and macros in a complex binary structure called OLE2 (Object Linking and Embedding). Microsoft never published a full specification during its heyday, which made interoperability an exercise in reverse engineering. LibreOffice, Google Docs, and other tools handle .doc files, but complex formatting — especially tables, text boxes, and embedded objects — may shift or break.
Microsoft Word opens .doc files perfectly and can convert them to .docx (File → Save As). Google Docs imports .doc files with reasonable fidelity. LibreOffice Writer handles most .doc files well. If you receive a .doc file, consider converting it to .docx for better compatibility and smaller file sizes — DOCX is the modern standard.