Office File Format Conversion or Else

When microsoft decided to change its office products to Open XML File Formats it really caused some backwards compatibility issues. Now there are a few ways to get around this we'll list them and let you decide what to do.

Backward Compatibility Options

In order to read 2007 Office files on older office suites you must..

• Download and Install File Format Converter (27MB)
• Ask creator, sender, or person with Office 2007 to save it as a Word 97-2003 Document
• If you are not doing edit ask creator, sender, or person with Office 2007 to convert it to an adobe pdf.

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Why did Microsoft do this?

Well there are a few reasons why Microsoft chose to update office in this way. (here is the summary of benifits on their site.

• They are Microsoft and the older apps were running to smooth. They needed more blue screens. (Same reason they created Vista) that was a joke for those of you who didn't pick up on my dry sense of humor.
• They are universally accessible because it is now open source...
• Easily integrate business information with documents
• Exchanging data between Microsoft Office applications and enterprise business systems is simplified
• XML Formats are made more stable than the binary formats
• Because they use compression they are much smaller, this means faster downloads, uploads, and smaller email attachments
• You can share documents confidently because you can easily identify and remove personally identifiable information and business-sensitive information, such as user names, comments, and file paths

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