Sun City Hilton Head Computer Club

Special Bulletin Revised August 5, 2009

Please do not answer this bulletin using the “Reply” button. Instead, create a new email and send feedback, comments, and questions to allyn.perdue@gmail.com.

All users of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint should read this advisory.

Applies to Microsoft Office 2003, Office XP, and Office 2000 with Word, Excel, and/or PowerPoint. Office 97 applications are not supported.

Microsoft Office 2007 File Format Compatibility Pack

Microsoft Office 2007 by default creates and saves in the more efficient Microsoft OpenXML document structure. Most importantly, Microsoft Word saves in the new format with the *.docx extension. In order for users of earlier versions to read and save the new format, Microsoft provides a Compatibility Pack that allows reading and saving *.docx files as *.docx, *.doc, and other standard formats.

To apply the Compatibility Pack, Office XP and Office 2003 must first be updated to include certain security updates. The simplest way to ensure that Office XP and Office 2003 are up to date is to use Microsoft Update for Windows and other Microsoft product updates. Optionally, users of the Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional operating systems may use Office Update to update their Office applications. Full details of the prerequisites may be found in Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 924074.

The Compatibility Pack also applies to Excel and PowerPoint and is compatible with Microsoft Works Suite Word 2000 and Word 2002 installations.

Special Notice: Microsoft Office 2000 extended support has been terminated. Additionally, the Office Update website was officially decommissioned August 1, 2009. Future compatibility pack updates are not guaranteed for Office 2000 components.

For full instructions from A to Z, see Microsoft Office Help and Support Article ID 923505.

The Office 2007 File Compatibility Pack is a 27.5 MB download best obtained via a broadband connection such as Time Warner Cable/RoadRunner high speed or Hargray DSL. Dial up users may visit the Computer Room and use one of the resident workstations to obtain the Compatibility Pack. The pack will fit easily on a USB flash drive or CD.

How to change the Office 2007 Default File Save Format

To ensure compatibility for recipients of newsletters and bulletins who may not know about or be able to obtain the Compatibility Pack, changing Office 2007 to save in earlier formats is advised. It is easy to change back back later.

Users of Office 2007 may change their default save formats to *.doc, *.xls, and *.ppt by individually opening Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and doing the following:

Click the Office button.

Click Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Options button and click Save.

Use the drop-down menu to respectively select Word 97-2003 *.doc, Excel Worksheet 97-2003, and PowerPoint Presentation 97-2003, then click OK and close the applications.

Allyn Perdue
Contributing Writer