Office 2007 File Compatibility Issues

Submitted by alkeller on Mon, 2008-03-03 20:28.

This announcement addresses issues resulting from the use of the new Microsoft Office 2007 whcih employs a new file format that is not compatible with earlier versions of Office. Documents in this format end with an "x" (for example: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx as opposed to .doc, .xls, .ppt) and the file extension will be four characters (instead of three).

This presents problems to both users of Office 2007 who save documents in this new format and those using earlier versions of Office who receive these new file formats. Below are solutions for each of those cases as well as for Apple Mac users. The forthcoming version of Office 2008 for the Mac will present the same issues.

Office 2007 Users - Saving Files In A Compatible Format

If you are using Office 2007, you can easily save files in compatibility mode. To do so simply select Save as from the Office button in the top left, and then select Word 97-2003 Document. This will save the file with the appropriate file extension recognized by older versions of Office. If you are working from an on-campus computer attached to the BSS Network, we have automated settings to automatically save in this format. For computers not administrated by BSS Computing you can change the default save behavior in Word/Excel/Powerpoint 2007 by going to the Office button and selecting Word Options (or Excel Options, or Powerpoint Options) then the Save tab, then Save files in this format: Word/Excel/Powerpoint 97-2003.

Office 2003 or Earlier Users - Opening Office 2007 Files

If you receive Office 2007 documents from another user but are using an older version of Office that will not open it, you can install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack: http://bss.sfsu.edu/bsscomputing/FileFormatConverters.zip

Mac Users can download the Office Converter: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx ,but the best solution will be to upgrade to Mac Office 2008 which has been released but not yet disseminated to the University.

Please contact the BSS Helpdesk (bsshelp@sfsu.edu, 338-6793) if you have any questions or concerns about Office compatibility.