anyone have the new MS Office? ->new file extensions

I just got a copy of it, and noticed that everything has an "x" on the end of the extension, i.e. .docx and .pptx....at least you can revert to a previous version, but I wonder why they did this?

 

I dont know why, and yes I have it... my new windows vista laptop came with it but unfortunately my product key wont work so I can only open it 5 times trial and then I need a product key.

 

Old versions of office cannot open the new file format.

 

TECHNICAL ANSWER: It's because they switched the Office format over to XML, and then zip it up. Check it out yourself. Change a *.docx file's extension to *.zip and open it. You'll find several XML files inside.

 

thats cool...at least they have included the old extension so that you can save the files as .doc or .ppt if you need too...

 

Thanks a lot for that piece of info. Rep + to you

 

Does this mean that if someone sends you a word document with the docx you can't read it if you have office 2000??

Bring on the conversion programs! I use open office anyway so no doubt they will bring something out.(i hope)

 

thats right...anything prior to office 07 will not be able to read it...

 

How is it that MS Office products end up always not being compatible with previous versions? I remember back when I was using windows, I had office 95 and I couldn't read .docs from office 97 or something like that... I don't remember exactly because I gave up completely on microsoft..

 

its all about $$....its like a new anything...they want you to buy it. Much like vista, except they failed on vista....vista is for 64 comps(although there is a 32 version)...if you don't have a 64 computer, you will have to buy one...which in the end makes them more $$...

 

For Office 2003 or previous versions, you can download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats from MS Downloads

 

Yes but the problem is why? Every one is trying to have backwards compatibility and standards that everyone can read and microsoft goes ahead and changes completely these standards, that even their own applications are not compatible among them.

 

i always wonder tht but its good to see the answer here ...

i like the features in there ... but dont like the fact that they removed auto sumarize featured

 

Now that deserves a cookie.

 

the new office also took me a while to orient to...it has a totally different look to it...but now that I have it its no problem...

 

I have a 32 bit version of Windows Vista.

But yeah, Microsoft is always like this. It gets annoying sometimes. Backward compatibility just isn't one of their things. In the future, as Microsoft Office 2007 gets more and more popular, people will begin to use the XML extenstions instead of the classic ones, making it not possible for people running older versions (yes, we paid for Microsoft Office too) to open them.

I have a feeling I'm going to be one of the people with a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 pretty soon. It looks cool, but it is kinda expensive.

 

Well, I suppose now would be a good time to buy some Microsoft stock, since they have virtually forced everyone to upgrade to vista and microsoft office over the next 2 years. Clearly this strategy should impact favourably on their revenue and give them a massive self-created revenue injection.

Unless of course there is a public backlash ( which is unlikely ) and a massive swing to open source. Since this activity is not new to microsoft I don't think this will happen.

[I am not a professional IT analyst or investment advisor - seek professional advice before making any investment decisions]