New File Formats in Office 2007

This post discusses the New file formats in Office 2007. Microsoft is now using the New XML file format for all office products.

Application	Office 2003	Office 2007
Word	.doc	.docx
Excel	.xls	.xlsx
PowerPoint	.ppt	.pptx

Microsoft is using the New XML format, because XML files are more compact (smaller file size)-very important when you use these files on the web, and it is easier to open even corrupted files that are in XML format. So the question that comes up is will folks that don't have Office 2007 be able to open and read these files?

The answer to that is definitely yes. If someone has an older version of Office say Office 2003, 2002, 2000 or 97, when they try to open the file for the first time, it will say "Windows cannot open this file". Then it will ask them if they want "Web services to find the appropriate progam" If they click on OK it will take them to a link to download a (converter) Office 2007 Compatibility Pack from the Microsoft Site. Once they download this Pack from the site (only have to do it once) they can open any Office 2007 file with the converter.

You can also go to the Save As, command and save the Office 2007 file as the Office 97-2003 file format.