Text::Extract::Word will do that (for .doc files anyway) but you'll have to convert the windows newlines to unix ones.Maybe something like:

perl -M'Text::Extract::Word q(get_all_text)' -e 'print get_all_text(q(document.doc))' | dos2unix | less

if you just want a quick look at it.

update: you might find these nodes helpful re docx:

using Perl to generate docx file

docx and Perl

In reply to Re: Read doc/docx in Linux by fod
in thread Read doc/docx in Linux by Anonymous Monk

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