All about DOCM files

DOCM stands for Microsoft Word Macro-Enabled Document and is Microsoft's Word format for text documents with embedded macros. The format was introduced in 2007 with Office 2007 and the new Office Open XML standard (OOXML, e.g. DOCX as the successor to DOC).

Technically, DOCM is identical to DOCX, as both formats are ZIP archives containing various XML files for text, formatting and metadata, as well as attachments such as images. DOCM can store VBA macros in the vbaProject.bin file in the archive. When saving as .docx, these macros are removed.

Security note

Even though it is now well known, macros in DOC(M) or Excel files have always posed a security risk and occasionally contain malware. Although Microsoft now displays warnings and disables execution by default, unknown .docm files should not be trusted. Only enable macros for files from known sources.

Last updated on 11. March 2026 by Sören with the experience of more than 127,898,492 converted files since 2013.