| MS Office: Compatibility with old versions |
If you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 and use Microsoft products (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to create or update your files, others who are still using the older version(s) of those programs will NOT be able to read your files. There are two workaround solutions for this problem:
To share your file with Windows or Macintosh users:
- Save the file as an older version. To do this, select "Save as", and then select an older version from the "Save as Type" drop down menu.
OR to share your file with Windows users:
- Instruct other Windows users to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. This update will enable them to read your file(s).
Note: A Compatibility Pack for Macintosh users is not available at this time. Microsoft plans to release the pack in late June 2008.
Additional Details on the New File Extensions and Compatibility
Office 2007's versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint use a new way to save documents. The new file format can be identified by the addition of an “x” at the end of the extension. If the document contains Macros and was saved in a Macro enabled format, it will be identified by the addition of an “m” at the end of the file extension. For example a Word 2007 saved document would now be saved as “assignment1.docx”, an Excel 2007 spreadsheet as “assignment1.xlsx”. If the document contains Macros, the extension will be “assignment1.xlsm”. Similar rules apply to other components of Microsoft Office.
Microsoft developed an Office Compatibility Pack. Once installed, both Office 2003 and 2007 users will be able to open, modify and save both in the old Office 2003 and the new Office 2007 format. When creating or modifying files, they will automatically save in the format they were first created. With the Compatibility Pack installed however, you will be able to save an Office 2007 Word documents with the “docx” extension in an Office 2003 format by performing the Save As function and selecting the Office 2000-2003 file format.
Compatibility with Macintosh Computer Users
An Office 2007 compatibility pack for Macintosh computers is not yet available. To address cross-platform compatibility issues, we recommend that Macintosh users advise their friends and colleagues using the 2007 Office system to save their documents as a “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure the documents can be easily shared across platforms.”
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