.docx files

[Michael B. Ross]

I received a .docx file from a student over the weekend. I had never seen that file type before, and I was surprised because I am adamant that all work must be submitted as a MS Word attachment.

I did a search and discovered that .docx is the file type used by MS Word 2007. I was able to download a plugin from MS that would open the file.

I am passing this on for when you receive your first .docx file. It might save you some time.

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

I received a .docx file from a student over the weekend. I had never seen that file type before, and I was surprised because I am adamant that all work must be submitted as a MS Word attachment.

I did a search and discovered that .docx is the file type used by MS Word 2007. I was able to download a plugin from MS that would open the file.

I am passing this on for when you receive your first .docx file. It might save you some time.

I have never used it, but this website says they can convert it online:
http://www.docx2doc.com/

[Michael B. Ross]

Once I downloaded the patch from MS, I had no problem opening the 07 document with my 03. The online service you mention is one I can mention to students and others. Thanks.

I am curious about something. Does Word 07 provide an option for a document to be saved as a Word 03 format? I suspect it does, but maybe someone with 07 can answer for sure.

I have never used it, but this website says they can convert it online:
http://www.docx2doc.com/

[Adam Spriggs]

I believe that with all of the Office 2007 products Microsoft switched to an open XML format instead of the old binary file format. Hence the "x" at the end of "docx".

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

Once I downloaded the patch from MS, I had no problem opening the 07 document with my 03. The online service you mention is one I can mention to students and others. Thanks.

I am curious about something. Does Word 07 provide an option for a document to be saved as a Word 03 format? I suspect it does, but maybe someone with 07 can answer for sure.

From what I read documents can be saved in older formats, but they default to the docx format.

[Brad Mercer]

Yes, folks with Word 07 just need to remember to save it as an older word format. 07 does have that option when you're saving a document. I use it at work and have to remember that.

Brad

[Steve Reece]

...I did a search and discovered that .docx is the file type used by MS Word 2007. I was able to download a plugin from MS that would open the file...

What is truly amazing about the .docx file is that you can rename it to a .zip and then browse it from Windows as you would any .zip file (you need to be in Windows XP or Vista). You can see the xml of the document, the font tables, everything. It's all xml. You can even grab the document.xml from the file, change your writing in Notepad (do not change the tags) and save it. Then if you rename it back to .docx and load it you'll see your changes.