I recently received an email attachment that contained a DOCX extension. Hmmmm? I’d never seen that type of extension before. The person who sent the email was a trusted source and I was assured the file was a Word document. Hmmmm? DOCX? What happened to my friend DOC (which has been the extension for Word documents since the beginning of time)?
Here’s what happened: Word 2007! It turns out that Word 2007 documents use the DOCX extenion. Undaunted, I attempted to open the file using Word 2003. Pow!!!!! Instead of the file opening, I was greeted with a bunch of gibberish. Ouch!
Again, I had to ask myself, "What happened?" It seems that Microsoft has added the new Office Open XML Formats to the following 2007 Microsoft Office programs:
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
What’s that you say, "So what! I’m sticking with older version of Word." Nice. But you’ll quickly take one on the chin because older versions of Word cannot open Word 2007 files. Sooner or later, someone is going to send you a DOCX file and you’re going to be stuck.
Don’t panic. Read on…
A compatibility pack is now available from Microsoft that will enable you to open and save Office Open XML Formats in earlier versions of Microsoft Office. You can install the compatibility pack on a computer that is running Microsoft Office 2003 programs, Microsoft Office XP programs, or Microsoft Office 2000 programs. Once you install the compatibility pack, you can open, edit, save, and create files in the robust Office Open XML Formats.
Users that do not own Microsoft Office but still want to open Word 2007 docx or Excell 2007 xlsx files (users of other word processors, graphic or desktop publishing programs), or people who use the computer mostly for surfing or emailing,
and Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office that are not covered by Microsoft compatibility pack, can use docxconverter 2.0. See: http://www.panergy-software.com/products/docxconverter/features.html
Users that do not own Microsoft Office but still want to open Word 2007 docx or Excell 2007 xlsx files (users of other word processors, graphic or desktop publishing programs), or people who use the computer mostly for surfing or emailing,
and Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office that are not covered by Microsoft compatibility pack, can use docxconverter 2.0. See: http://www.panergy-software.com/products/docxconverter/features.html
Users that do not own Microsoft Office but still want to open Word 2007 docx or Excell 2007 xlsx files (users of other word processors, graphic or desktop publishing programs), or people who use the computer mostly for surfing or emailing,
and Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office that are not covered by Microsoft compatibility pack, can use docxconverter 2.0. See: http://www.panergy-software.com/products/docxconverter/features.html