Why can't you open that MS Office file?

Yep, it can be frustrating. A colleague sends you a file, perhaps Excel, Word, or PowerPoint. You open the attachment (after carefully running it through your virus checker!) but it doesn't open. You get a nice message that says something like "Can't open this file type."

These days, the answer seems to be related to the fact that there are several versions of the MS Office products out there. This usually means someone has Office 2007, and the recipient has an earlier or "lower" version like 2003. This means that Office 2007 has a different file structure, which is XML-based, and the file extensions have changed. They will look like this:

97-2003
Word - .doc
Excel - .xls
PowerPoint - .ppt

2007
Word - .docx
Excel - .xlsx
PowerPoint - .pptx

So, what is to be done? Here are a few tips we have discovered and shared with our classes.

Save your files as PDF.

If you have a means to convert to PDF, and the recipient of the file doesn't need to edit, PDF is a great choice. They are frequently smaller in file size, and you can also post them to the web for easy download. There are free PDF creation programs available on the web, just Google it!

If you use Office 2007, you can save the file "down" to the 97-2003 version.

That means that if you are using Word 2007, for example, when you save the file, make sure you select "Word 97-2003 Document" from the Save As Type drop-down.

This means that any version can read the file. You may lose fidelity in some cases, as Office 2007 files are XML-based, but in many business documents this is not noticeable. Where you might see an issue is in graphics intensive applications like PowerPoint or Publisher, and a message will pop up telling you what will be lost or changed.

One example was a SmartArt org chart done in Word 2007, saved as a docx, when saved to 97-2003 became a "flat" graphic file and was no longer editable in Word 2003.

If you just want to view the file, and not make changes, download the free viewers from Microsoft.

You can click here to get a page full of the viewers.

Load the Compatibility Pack.

Click here to download the compatibility pack. It will allow you to open 2007 documents in 2003; again, you will lose fidelity as mentioned above, but at least you can edit the documents.

Try an on-line conversion tool.

I have tried, and liked a tool called Zamzar. It is located at http://www.zamzar.com. It is free, but it takes a little time for them to e-mail your converted file. And there is loss of fidelity, again. You can pay a membership fee if you have the need for speed or remove the ads. There are others out there, so trying Googling "convert docx files" or some variation, and see what pops up.

Try another product.

You can open Office 2007 files in OpenOffice (a free download from OpenOffice.org) and also Google Docs. However, Google Docs will only support Excel 2007 files (xlsx), not Word 2007 (docx) at this time.

Wow - a lot of info to absorb.

You can contact us, Virtual Options, through our website at http://www.virtualoptions.net. We offer computer training, coaching, and consulting!

See you soon!