Microsoft Office 2007 introduced new file formats based on XLM and ZIP technologies which can do much more than the old formats. The new formats were introduced keeping in mind the open standards and adopting XML-based file formats and the applications carrying new formats are Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Visit Microsoft Library to know more about 2007 Open XML file formats.

These technical advancements don’t mean much to users like you and I who put these applications to regular use for just storing information. One of the only reasons users usually dwell into the new formats is when it fails to open in the previous versions of Microsoft Office, namely Office XP, Office 2003, etc..

To solve this issue Microsoft has introduced viewers and converts for Microsoft Office 2007 file formats. PowerPoint viewer, Word Viewer and Excel Viewer all of these application let you open Office 2007 documents (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) without having to upgrade to office 2007.

Viewers just let you open and view office 2007 documents but the Office 2007 compatibility pack lets you open, edit and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

Click here to download compatibility pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 file formats.

All said and done about the Office Viewers and Converters if you are not too inclined to download and install a software to convert here is an online service which does in online. ZAMZAR.com offers conversion of various file types including Office word 2007 (.docx), Office Excel 2007 (.xlsx), and PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) and its completely free.

Following is the list of mostly used Converters and Viewers offered by Microsoft for Microsoft Office. [Link]

Excel converters and viewers

• Excel 2003 viewers
• Excel 2000 converters
• Excel 2000 viewers
• Excel 97 converters

Outlook converters and viewers

• Outlook 2000 converters
• Outlook 97/98 converters

PowerPoint converters and viewers

• PowerPoint 2007 viewers
• PowerPoint 2003 viewers
• PowerPoint 2002 viewers
• PowerPoint 2000 converters
• PowerPoint 2000 viewers
• PowerPoint 97 converters
• PowerPoint 97 viewers

Word converters and viewers

• Word 2007 viewers
• Word 2003 viewers
• Word 2002 converters
• Word 2002 viewers
• Word 2000 converters
• Word 2000 viewers
• Word 97 converters
• Word 97 viewers

Converters and viewers for Macintosh users

• Mactopia downloads

Resourse Links:

• Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack [Link]
• Microsoft Word & Excel 2003 viewers for 2007 file formats [Link]

Resources mentioned in this article should help you resolve issues with new file formats.