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Convert Wacky Microsoft Office Files

Posted on January 25, 2008 in Software Help

I ran into a problem yesterday, because I got a .docx file e-mailed to me and I could not open it. Why? Well from what I could tell this seems to be one of Microsoft’s wacky file formats that you can only open using their products. Since I use OpenOffice.org as my word processor, spreadsheet, and more of choice I needed to find a quick fix.

That is when I stumbled upon this neat tool provided by Microsoft. Get read for this name… the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.

(Try to say that ten times fast!)

I downloaded and installed it, now I can right-click the oddball files, pick “Open With…” and choose this new download. When you do it pops up with a box asking you what you would like to convert it to. With my .docx file I just turned it into a regular .doc file and I was done.

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  • I've only had to use it for a handful of reasons but so far I haven't seen any big formatting issues or problems due to it. Seems to do a good job converting it over.
  • I am also an Open Office user. I haven't run into this issue with oddball file extensions yet. Good information to know.

    Curious... in the conversion is the file's formatting changed in any way? Odd characters appearing in the doc, etc.

    Mike
    Dropthemike.com
  • Lee
    Damn what a name! Never knew this existed though thanks for the suggestion. I wonder what other toys Microsoft is hiding from me?
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