Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack

Microsoft's new Office 2007 has been released to departmental support technicians for test purposes. DO NOT let anyone install this product on your PC until it is thoroughly tested on your applications and you have assured yourself that you understand the totally new user interface.

The Problem For Our Existing Office 2000/XP/2003 Users

Excel, Word and PowerPoint 2007 use a new Office XML Format. This new format offers:

• Reduced file size
• Improved security and file recovery
• Enhanced integration with external sources

Documents created and saved in the new XML format will have the following file extensions:

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

Office 2000/XP/2003 users will not be able to open documents saved in this new XML format!

• This means that if you are an instructor who has Word 2003 and your student, who has Office 2007, emails you a Word document in the new XML format you will not be able to open it.

To learn more about the error messages you may encounter when you try to open an XML file visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919026/.

The Solution

Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack to ensure that users can exchange documents between different releases of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If you are not planning to upgrade to Office 2007 at this time then you must install the Compatibility Pack.

• To learn more about the Compatibility Pack visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074
• You can download the Compatibility Pack from the University's Softweb. You'll find it under "Utilities". You can also download it from Microsoft's website.
• Before you install it you must make sure that your computer is up to date with all high priority updates from Microsoft Update.
• If you do not have Administrator rights on your computer you will not be able to install software on your computer. You must ask your computer support technician or Client Support for assistance.

The Compatibility Pack is being installed remotely for those users who are supported primarily by DoIT Client Support.

To see if you have the Compatibility Pack installed:

• Open Word
• Click File > Save As
• In the Save As dialog box click the drop down arrow in the Save As Type field. If you have the Word 2007 Document (*.docx) option then you have the Compatibility Pack installed and you will have no problem opening files that you receive in the new XML format.

Help

If you need assistance contact your department's computer support technician or call Client Support at 632-9800.