The 97-2003 binary formats, read properly.

OLE2 Compound File Binary Format isn't a smaller version of OOXML — it's a different filesystem-in-a-file, and .doc text isn't stored in reading order.

the-problem

Before OOXML, Office files were OLE2 — the Compound File Binary Format — which is essentially a tiny FAT filesystem embedded in one file, streams and all. It shares nothing structurally with the zip-of-XML that .docx/.xlsx/.pptx use, so a parser built for the modern formats throws outright on a legacy one rather than degrading gracefully. Word's .doc format compounds this: the document text sits in a WordDocument stream as a piece table — a list of byte ranges that must be reassembled in a specific order to produce readable text. Read the stream's raw bytes start to finish and you get scrambled, out-of-order text, not garbage exactly, but wrong. There's also a classic naming trap: plenty of files with a .doc extension are actually RTF or a renamed OOXML file underneath, and extension-based routing gets those wrong before extraction even starts.

one-request-solution

txtfetch detects OLE2's compound-file signature from the file's actual bytes — not its extension — and routes it to Tika's POI-backed legacy parsers (HWPF for .doc, HSSF for .xls, HSLF for .ppt), which understand the piece table and reassemble .doc text in the correct reading order. Because detection is byte-based, a file named .doc that's really RTF or renamed OOXML still gets parsed correctly instead of misrouted.

curl
curl -X POST https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TXTFETCH_KEY" \
  -F file=@1998-contract-template.doc
Python
import os
import requests

with open("1998-contract-template.doc", "rb") as f:
    r = requests.post(
        "https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['TXTFETCH_KEY']}"},
        files={"file": f},
    )

print(r.json()["extracted_text"])
JavaScript
import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises";

const file = new Blob([await readFile("1998-contract-template.doc")]);
const form = new FormData();
form.append("file", file, "1998-contract-template.doc");

const res = await fetch("https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.TXTFETCH_KEY}` },
  body: form,
});

const { extracted_text } = await res.json();
console.log(extracted_text);
Go
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"mime/multipart"
	"net/http"
	"os"
)

type extractResponse struct {
	Status        string `json:"status"`
	ExtractedText string `json:"extracted_text"`
}

func main() {
	f, err := os.Open("1998-contract-template.doc")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer f.Close()

	var body bytes.Buffer
	writer := multipart.NewWriter(&body)
	part, err := writer.CreateFormFile("file", "1998-contract-template.doc")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	if _, err := io.Copy(part, f); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	writer.Close()

	req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract", &body)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("TXTFETCH_KEY"))
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", writer.FormDataContentType())

	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	var result extractResponse
	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&result); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(result.ExtractedText)
}

Or skip the download — pass a url parameter and txtfetch fetches the document server-side:

curl
curl -X POST "https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract?url=https://example.com/archive/legacy-invoice.xls" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TXTFETCH_KEY"
Python
import os
import requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['TXTFETCH_KEY']}"},
    params={"url": "https://example.com/archive/legacy-invoice.xls"},
)

print(r.json()["extracted_text"])
JavaScript
const endpoint = new URL("https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract");
endpoint.searchParams.set("url", "https://example.com/archive/legacy-invoice.xls");

const res = await fetch(endpoint, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.TXTFETCH_KEY}` },
});

const { extracted_text } = await res.json();
console.log(extracted_text);
Go
package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
)

type extractResponse struct {
	Status        string `json:"status"`
	ExtractedText string `json:"extracted_text"`
}

func main() {
	endpoint, err := url.Parse("https://api.txtfetch.com/v1/extract")
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	q := endpoint.Query()
	q.Set("url", "https://example.com/archive/legacy-invoice.xls")
	endpoint.RawQuery = q.Encode()

	req, err := http.NewRequest("POST", endpoint.String(), nil)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("TXTFETCH_KEY"))

	resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	var result extractResponse
	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&result); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	fmt.Println(result.ExtractedText)
}
{
  "status": "success",
  "extracted_text": "..."
}

formats-covered

  • .doc
  • .xls
  • .ppt
  • .pub
  • .wpd

faq

Why does my .doc file come out as scrambled or out-of-order gibberish?
The legacy .doc format stores text as a piece table — byte ranges in the WordDocument stream that aren't laid out in reading order. A byte-scraping extractor that reads the stream start-to-finish gets the pieces in the wrong order. Tika's HWPF parser reassembles them correctly.
Do modern, OOXML-only libraries support .doc and .xls at all?
Usually not — many libraries built only for .docx/.xlsx/.pptx throw an error on an OLE2 file rather than degrading. txtfetch routes OLE2 signatures to dedicated legacy parsers (POI's HWPF/HSSF/HSLF) instead.
What if a file is named .doc but is actually RTF or a renamed OOXML file?
txtfetch detects the real format from the file's byte signature, not its extension, so a mislabeled file still routes to the correct parser.
Are .pub (Publisher) and .wpd (WordPerfect) files supported too?
Yes — both are legacy binary formats handled through the same Apache Tika pipeline as .doc/.xls/.ppt.

go-further

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