My Brief History of Computers late 80s and early 90's

For all you generations Xers and Y'ers, here's my personal history of computers.

In the eighties some computers used tape drives to load files because hard drives were too expensive. You really needed some patience for the tape to load because it took forever! Trust me, this was a painful experience.

And then floppies were the rage. My first Mac SE was really awesome because it had TWO floppies..one was used to load the operating system, the other was used for applications and files. This meant you didn't have to continually swap floppies whenever the operating system needed some data. So awesome!

At that point we were making the transition to 2400 baud modems, which was really great compared to the 1200 baud modems. Some 9600 baud modems were available but they were hard to get to work and gave a lot of errors. Plus they were sooo expensive...around $1000.

And then in the early 90's my Mac IIsi was really fast...I bought a 60 megabyte external drive for $600. And backing it up was simple - just buy a case of 50 floppies and label and swap them in and out when the backup program finished each disk and ejected it.

To be continued...

Docx File Format History

"Docx" files, or files ending with the extension .docx were introduced in 2007 as the new document format for Microsoft Office.  Open Office XML (OOXML) is the overall file format which covers Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Excel.

The new "docx" file format is a collection of files zipped together to form one overall file. The individual files consist of XML documents, binaries, and supporting files such as ".rels" which holds information on the organization of the files which make up the "docx" file.

This format contrasts sharply with ".doc" files, which is a binary document format in versions of Word prior to 2007. The ".doc" file format is still common because of the number of older machines still in use and the reluctance to upgrade software in a down economy.

This is one reason for the popularity of www.docx2doc.com as many users who receive docx files cannot open the new file format on their older version of Microsoft Word.

The Docx2doc.com Team

Document Converter Engine Upgrade

Document Conversion Hardware Improved 4 Times Over


For the second time in roughly a month we felt the need to upgrade the converter web server. Lately we have been overwhelmed with requests for converting docx to doc,  docx to pdf, and doc to pdf files. This second upgrade gives us 4 times the horsepower to convert documents online.

Many other websites take your files and put them in a queue and convert them when they get around to it. Docx2doc.com takes a different approach and converts the files while you wait. To do this we need some serious computing horsepower. to get the document conversion done quickly.

A lot of people complain when the need to upgrade servers. However, we are happy to do this as need because that means our document converter traffic is growing.

Maximum File Size Limit Doubled

Additionally we increased the maximum file size from 10 megabytes to 20 megabytes because we can now handle larger files.

If you haven't converted documents lately, you can check out www.docx2doc.com to see just how easy it is.

The Docx2doc.com Team

New web server for Docx2doc.com

We are delighted to report that we have relocated Docx2doc.com to a new server which has double the  speed, memory, and more disk space.  What this means in day-to-day terms is that we can process more conversions for you, do it faster, and have a better conversion rate. We are delighted to put the work into moving our platform to faster hardware because this means our converters are becoming more popular!

We require some serious horespower to do these conversion because we do it in REAL TIME. There is no waiting for e-mails, registrations, or queues. As soon as your file is uploaded we convert it. Not many places can do this at all, let alone do these conversions for free.  But we know this is what you want, and this is what we deliver even if it costs us more to do it.

Enjoy your faster, better, and more realiable web converter site, www.docx2doc.com!

Why convert docx files to doc

Even though the "docx" file format was introduced in 2007 we are experiencing record demand for our on the fly document conversion service.  There are a number of situations that necessitate the use the docx to doc service.

First of all, people are not upgrading at a rate as in the past. One reason is the economy. In a recession people and business don't spend money on things that are currently working, and that could mean a slower upgrade cycle. Also, desktop and laptop computer sales have slowed in recent quarters, and that creates a lack of confidence for people to upgrade their software as well. Why spend money on something that is currently working? And if you do have extra money to spend, the current trend is a smart phone or tablet.

It could take decades before Office 2003 isn't used anymore. For example, many businesses are slow to upgrade from Microsoft XP, even though sales ended in 2008, extended support is possible through 2014. If people are not updating their OS, then they are probably reluctant to upgrade the software on it to maintain compatibility.

Also, older computers are used for a longer period of time in third world countries because they don't have the money to upgrade. In many cases they buy older computers at a fraction of the cost and use the appropriate software for compatibility.

All of this means there are plenty of people out there who receive docx files and cannot read them. The advantage of using an online service like Docx2doc.com is that we don't require any software to install, we just convert the file and send it back to you online. There are no upgrades and you have the best of both worlds!

The Docx2doc.com Team

Convert documents for your website using Docx2doc.com

Several web sites are using the Docx2doc OEM service to convert documents behind the scenes. These sites pass files over to Docx2doc using our HTML API, specify the destination format, and then receive the converted file.

This service works great for them because they don't have to maintain the converter engine or specifically configure servers, and it is convenient as well. All of this happens behind the scenes, so the user going to our partners web sites don't even know the details of what happened, they just get presented with a converted document.


For example, if you have web site A, someone could go to it, upload a file, and get a converted file back without ever leaving web site A.  Web site A transparently sends the file to Docx2doc.com and  then converts it and sends the resulting file back to web site A. The person never leaves web site A or sees Docx2doc.com.

If you are interested in the behind the scenes OEM conversion service please contact us.

The Docx2doc.com Team

Happy Holidays 2012 From Docx2doc.com

Dear Loyal Users,

As we wrap up the year, we want to wish everyone happy and safe holidays this year.

Even in a "low traffic" time like November and December we are celebrating some milestones here at Docx2doc.com. We had the highest one day document conversion day last month, as well as receiving strong traffic and conversions so far through December. We are happy to report that we needed to upgrade our servers to handle this amount of traffic!

Also, we are reflecting on the things we accomplished this year, such as adding compression to just about any type of file using zip and gzip.

We also added a file conversion search feature, so you can easily find file converters we support as well as similar ones in case we have some that you haven't thought of. With over 250 file converters now just listing them is overwhelming - the search tool really helps now!.

We also added temporary storage of converted files from one hour to one month. You can socialize your conversions by sharing and linking of converted files on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Not to mention adding a different conversion engine for the wps to doc converter and support for RAR files. On top of that we added VCARD support, as well as converting to and from CSV

Also don't forget you can now add file conversion to your web site or blog.

We are looking for to a great 2013 and we hope you are to!

Warm Regards,

The Docx2doc.com Team