KWord has the ability (with varying success) to load data from foreign (non-KOffice) data files. KWord also has the ability to save data as non-KOffice data files. This is provided to help users of KWord to interact more seamlessly with people who use other operating systems and wordprocessors.

KWord does this by loading a non-KOffice datafile into memory and passing the data through a filter to extract as much information as possible from the data file. Some formatting information will be lost or changed by the filter in the attempt.

When KWord reads data into KWord from a non-KOffice file format, it is importing the data.

When KWord saves a KWord document as a non-KOffice file format, it is exporting the data.