Do You Really Need Office 2007?

Posted on: June 4th, 2009

Many people, including myself, find Office 2007 not to their liking. I especially dislike the user interface changes they made with Word 2007. However, for some time Office 2007 is the only thing that you can get in the stores, or online. And on top of these, Office 2007 has come with a whole new set of file formats (.docx, .xlsx, and so on) which are not compatible with Office 2000, Office XP or Office 2003.

If someone send you a document saved in, let’s say, Word 2007 in its default format (.docx) and you have Office 2003 on your computer then all you get is a bunch of strange looking characters if you try to open it with Word 2003. Same thing with Excel and Powerpoint.

This made many people buy Office 2007. And that is quite expensive.

However there is a quick, easy and most of all free solution to keeping your current Microsoft Office version and be able to handle the 2007 file formats! However this is not publicized much. I guess probably because Microsoft do need those Office 2007 sales.

The solution is actually offered by Microsoft. On their website there is a download called: “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats” and the link to it is: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

If you download and run this update then afterwards you will be able open, modify and save Word, Excel and Powerpoint files that are in the 2007 formats.

Quite simple, but somehow this hasn’t become a common knowledge. And obviously this could save you a load of money – not mentioning the frustration of trying to find things in the new 2007 user interface.