TextEdit can open documents in Microsoft Word, Open Document, Web Archive, HTML, rich text, and plain text formats. Most word-processing applications can save a file in one of these formats. TextEdit preserves much of the formatting in Microsoft Word, Open Document, and RTF files when you view them in TextEdit. TextEdit may also support some elements that other applications use, such as tables.
Choose File > Open.
Locate the file you want to open, and then select it.
If you want to use a specific text encoding, choose it from the Plain Text Encoding pop-up menu; otherwise, leave the setting at Automatic.
If you want to ignore formatting styles and elements in the document, select “Ignore rich text commands.”
Click Open.