What is a DOT file?

Files with .DOT extension are template files created by Microsoft Word to have pre-formatted settings for generation of further DOC or DOCX files. A template file is created in order to have specific user settings that should be applied to subsequent files created from these. These settings include page margins, borders, headers, footers, and other page settings. Such templates are used in official documents such as company letterheads and standardized forms. The DOT file format is specific to Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier, but is supported by higher versions as well. Microsoft Word by default opens every new document based on normal.dot file. If modified, all the new files created will result in same settings as from the template file. In Microsoft Word 2007, the DOT file format has been replaced with Office OpenXML based DOTX file format.