With the introduction of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite came a bunch of new file formats:

Word

• .docx—Microsoft Office Word 2007 document
• .docm—Microsoft Office Word 2007 macro-enabled document

PowerPoint

• .pptx—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation
• .pptm—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 macro-enabled presentation
• .potx—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 template
• .potm—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 macro-enabled template
• .ppsx—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 show
• .ppsm—Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 macro-enabled show

Excel

• .xlsb—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 binary workbook
• .xlsx—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbook
• .xlsm—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled workbook
• .xltx—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 template
• .xltm—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled template
• .xlam—Microsoft Office Excel 2007 add-in

These new file formats allow for the usage of many new features in Office 2007. There is however one major problem. For those users who have yet to upgrade to the latest Office suite, they are left unable to open any documents created in Office 2007. With the amount of document files and Excel spreadsheets flying through our data pipelines these days this is extremely problematic.

Fortunately, Microsoft has answered the call for their Office users. Microsoft now offers a free download that will give all Office 2003 and Office 2000 users the ability to read, edit and create files in their new XML formats (.docx, xlsx, etc.). They call this download the “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.”

To download this pack navigate to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

After you have downloaded the package, double-click the file and follow the installation instructions.

Note: Microsoft recommends running Windows Update before installing this package.