Microsoft has added the new Office Open XML Formats to Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint 2007.  When you try to open a file created in the new XML Format using the Open dialog box or a drag-and-drop operation in an older version of Office you receive one of the following error messages:

Windows cannot open this file.

The file is not in a recognizable format.

PowerPoint can’t open the type of file represented by filename.

PowerPoint can’t read the outline from filename. No text converter is installed for this file type.

If you don’t want to upgrade to the latest version of Office but you want to prepare yourself for the new versions of files you are about to receive a compatibility pack is available to make sure that you can open and save Office Open XML Formats in earlier versions of Microsoft Office. You can install the compatibility pack on a computer that is running Microsoft Office 2003 programs, Microsoft Office XP programs, or Microsoft Office 2000 programs. When you install the compatibility pack, you can open, edit, save, and create files in the Office Open XML Formats.  You can download the Converter Pack at;

Microsoft Converter Pack

Download the Converter (it is 27MB) and double-click on it to run the application.  Put a check mark to agree to the Microsoft License and click continue.

The installer will extract some files;

The Program will then silently install to your Office Installation.

If the installation is complete with no errors, you will see the Setup Completed Successfully screen below;

If you go back and launch any Office Application you will notice that you now have support for the docx, docm, xlsx, xlsm formats.

Tags | Disaster Recovery, General, Networking, Windows Vista, Windows XP