I just read on David’s weblog that there is now an additional download for Office XP and Office 2003 which allows users of those version to save and open documents created in Office 2007. It’s still beta though, but worth a try. You just have to love the name…:

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats (Beta 2)

The naming ‘standard’ has certain similarities to IBM’s naming rules I think. Long, full of description, but impossible to remember ;-)

Interesting btw: if you open your Office 2007 documents in a zip tool like WinZip or 7-Zip you can see what’s actually in there: a bunch of folders with XML files in there.

From the webpage:

By updating Microsoft Office XP and Office 2003 with the Compatibility Pack (Beta 2), you can create new documents, open and edit documents, and save documents using the following 2007 Microsoft Office system file formats:

Word

  • .docx – Microsoft Office Word 2007 document
  • .docm – Microsoft Office Word 2007 macro-enabled document

Powerpoint

  • .pptx – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 presentation
  • .pptm – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 macro-enabled presentation
  • .potx – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 template
  • .potm – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 macro-enabled template
  • .ppsx – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 show
  • .ppsm – Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2007 macro-enabled show

Excel

  • .xlsb – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 binary workbook
  • .xlsx – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 workbook
  • .xlsm – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled workbook
  • .xltx – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 template
  • .xltm – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled template
  • .xlam – Microsoft Office Excel 2007 add-in

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