ok.thanks salathe.i have 1 problem.if i have a doc type file and i want to open it i should convert it first to txt.my problem is i dont know a script that convert doc to txt.i saw on internet this code

[php]
$word = new COM("word.application") or die("Unable to instantiate Word");
$word->Documents->Open($filename);
$new_filename = substr($filename,0,-4) . ".txt";
// the '2' parameter specifies saving in txt format
$word->Documents[1]->SaveAs($new_filename,2);
$word->Documents[1]->Close(false);
$word->Quit();
$word->Release();
$word = NULL;
unset($word);

$fh = fopen($new_filename, 'r');
$contents = fread($fh, filesize($new_filename));
fclose($fh);
unlink($new_filename);
[php]

i tried to run this but theres an error on it class COM is not defined what does that mean?