Extract text from QW files
To convert your QW file to another format, you need Symantec Q&A or other Text software.
To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Word Processor" file type, you need software like Symantec Q&A or a similar tool.
A .qw file is primarily a QuickWriter word processor document, a legacy format associated with the Write module of the classic Symantec Q&A database suite from the DOS era. These files contain formatted text, page layout settings, and document metadata that modern word processors like Microsoft Word cannot natively open or interpret. Users often discover these files in archived floppy disk backups or legacy business datasets, only to find them completely inaccessible on Windows 10 or 11.
A secondary, though less common, use of the .qw extension is associated with Quicken financial software. In many cases, users mistake the application executable (qw.exe) for a data file, or are dealing with an obscure, older transaction log format.
The primary difficulty for .qw owners is proprietary lock-in: the format was designed for DOS environments, meaning it lacks support for modern Unicode text, images, or responsive layouts. Attempting to open these in a standard text editor often results in a mix of readable text and garbage binary characters (formatting codes). For archival and practical use, the best course of action is converting these legacy documents to PDF for preservation or DOCX/RTF if editing is required.
Convert.Guru analyzes your QW file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted GPX, PTC and TABLE files.
If you want to convert QW file to , you can use Symantec Q&A or similar software from the "QuickWriter Document" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to QW, try Symantec Q&A or another comparable tool in the "QuickWriter Document" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our QW converter.