How to open .RST files (reStructuredText) on Android, Windows and Linux

You download a Python project and its readme is README.rst, not the usual README.md. Or a documentation folder is full of .adoc files, or a friend who lives in Emacs sends you their notes as .org. They look a bit like Markdown, but Markdown apps don’t always know what to do with them.

All three are plain-text markup languages: the text is readable as it is, and a converter turns it into formatted pages. Folders opens .rst, .adoc, .asciidoc and .org files in its text editor on Android, Windows and Linux, so you can read and edit them anywhere.

What is an .rst file?

reStructuredText is the markup language of the Docutils project, from the Python world. It’s what Sphinx uses to build documentation, so you’ll find it in Python’s own docs, on Read the Docs, in the Linux kernel’s documentation, and in many readmes on PyPI. Its style is easy to spot:

• headings are underlined with a row of =, - or ~;
• *italic*, **bold** and ``literal code`` with double backticks;
• directives start with two dots: .. note::, .. code-block:: python, .. image:: logo.png;
• roles in colons, such as :ref: and :doc:, link to other parts of the docs.

Two other formats work on the same idea:

Extension	What it is	Where you meet it
.rst	reStructuredText	Python projects, Sphinx and Read the Docs sites, the Linux kernel’s docs
.adoc	AsciiDoc: = Title, == Section, attributes such as :toc:, and include:: to pull in other files	Technical manuals and books; Git’s own documentation is written in it
.asciidoc	AsciiDoc, with the long extension	Older AsciiDoc projects
.org	Emacs Org mode: * headings, TODO and DONE items, dates like SCHEDULED: <2026-11-10 Tue>, tables drawn with |	Notes, to-do lists and plans kept in Emacs, or on Android in Orgzly Revived

Asciidoctor turns AsciiDoc into HTML, PDF or EPUB. Org files are made for Emacs, where headings fold and an agenda gathers your dates. AsciiDoc files occasionally end in .asc, but that usually means a PGP key or signature (see how to open PEM and key files).

How to open an .rst file with Folders

On Android:

1. Install Folders from the download page and allow access to your files.
2. Find the file in the project folder, or search for it by name. A project downloaded as a ZIP can be opened in Folders first; tap the file inside.
3. Tap the .rst, .adoc or .org file. It opens in the text editor with word wrap on.
4. If it was sent to you in another app, tap it there and choose Open with → Folders.

On Windows and Linux:

1. Browse to the file in Folders and double-click it.
2. On Windows, Folders’ installer adds it to File Explorer’s Open with menu for these types, so right-click → Open with → Folders works too.

What you can do with it in Folders

• Read the source as it is. These formats were designed to be readable unconverted. Word wrap keeps long paragraphs on screen, and line numbers help in long documents.
• Find a directive, a heading or every TODO, and Find and replace (with Match case) to rename a term across a page.
• Go to line. Sphinx reports problems as index.rst:42: WARNING: ..., so you can jump straight to line 42.
• Edit and Save, with undo and redo. Mark an Org item as done by changing TODO to DONE, fix a broken link, or add a section.
• Open several files as tabs, for example an AsciiDoc book and the chapter it pulls in with include::.
• Document info shows the encoding and line endings.

Folders shows these formats as text. Its Preview is for Markdown only, so there’s no formatted view of reStructuredText, AsciiDoc or Org, and no Org agenda.

Other ways to open .rst files

• GitHub and GitLab render .rst, .adoc and .org readmes as formatted pages in the browser.
• Sphinx or Docutils’ rst2html build reStructuredText into HTML; Asciidoctor does the same for AsciiDoc; Emacs is the home of Org mode.
• Pandoc converts all three to HTML, Word, Markdown and more.
• VS Code has extensions for reStructuredText, AsciiDoc and Org with live preview.

Problems opening an .rst file?

• You want the formatted page, not the markup. Convert it with Pandoc, Sphinx or Asciidoctor, or look at it on GitHub, which renders all three.
• Parts show as errors on GitHub. Directives and roles such as .. toctree:: or :ref: come from Sphinx, not plain reStructuredText, so other tools can’t render them. The file isn’t broken; it needs Sphinx.
• Your edit broke the layout. Indentation carries meaning in reStructuredText: the content of a directive must be indented evenly under it. Check the spaces at the start of the lines you changed.
• Part of the text is missing. AsciiDoc’s include:: and reStructuredText’s .. include:: pull in other files. Open those files too.

Questions people ask

Can I convert .rst to Markdown? Yes, with Pandoc: pandoc README.rst -o README.md. Complex Sphinx directives may need tidying afterwards. Folders then shows the Markdown with a formatted preview.

What’s the difference between reStructuredText and Markdown? Both are plain-text markup. Markdown is simpler and more widespread; reStructuredText has directives and cross-references built in, which is why big documentation projects use it.

What app opens .org files on Android? Folders opens them as text for reading and editing. For an agenda and folding headings, Orgzly Revived is made for Org files.

Is .adoc the same as .asciidoc? Yes. Both are AsciiDoc; .adoc is simply the shorter, more common extension.

Related guides: how to open TXT, LOG and NFO files and how to open LaTeX .tex files, plus all 382 file types Folders opens.