Making Office 2007 files work with Office 2003

Is it doc or is it docx?You may not care unless you’re a Microsoft Windows Office 2003 user who is trying to open a Word 2007 file with Word 2003. Then you may have a problem. Office 2007 can open and save Office 2003 documents, but Office 2003 (without application of a special Compatibility Pack) cannot do likewise with Office 2007 documents.

If you use Office 2003, review the online directions and decide if you want to download and install the latest Compatibility Pack. A Microsoft spokesperson said this recent version resolved problems that some users experienced with the earlier Pack, including font translation. “The known issues have been corrected with the (March 6, 2008) update,” the spokesperson added. Approximately 1,000 campus users have either downloaded the Compatibility Pack themselves or their departmental support staffs enabled automated installation over the Notre Dame network.

You can tell the difference between Office 2003 and Office 2007 files by looking at the file extension: Office 2007 files have an “x” at the end of the file extension – docx for Word documents, xlsx for Excel documents and pptx for PowerPoint documents, for example – whereas Office 2003 documents are simply doc, xls and ppt.

More information about Office 2007 for Windows is available on the OIT website at oit.nd.edu/office/. Microsoft has recently released Office 2008 for the Macintosh which has similar file compatibility situations. Information for Macintosh users is located on the site as well. Mac users may be interested in downloading and installing the utility for converting Windows Office 2007 and 2008 documents to Office 2004 files for Macintosh. You’ll find additional information on Office 2008 for Macintosh is on the OIT website.

If you have additional questions, please contact your departmental IT staff or the OIT Help Desk at 574-631-8111 (oithelp@nd.edu).