File Formats

Introduction

Microsoft Office 2007 introduces a new file formats for the office suite products including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. The new file formats are called Office Open XML Formats and represents a major change to how Office saves files.  An "X" at the end of the file extension marks this new file format.  For example:

Default File Formats

For more details about the new file formats, please see office.microsoft.com.

File Compatibility - Guidelines

Note that the new file formats cannot be read by some earlier versions of Office.  Office 2007, however, can create and read the older formats.  Therefore, if you are creating documents in Office2007 that will be shared with others (ex.  posted to Blackboard, shared with other students, submitted to professors, used in other computing facilities (labs, classrooms), etc.),  the following guidelines are strongly recommended:

• To ensure that Office files are accessible in all environments, it is recommended that Microsoft Office files be saved in the  Office97-2003 format, RTF,  PDF, or HTML format.
  • To save your Office 2007 files in alternate formats:  click the Office Button, select "Save As", and choose the desired file format   -- 97-2003 format (sometimes called "compatibility mode"),  PDF, or "Other Formats" (for RTF and HTML).
    
    
    
  • Note the "Save As PDF" feature is an optional component in Office 2007.  This compatibility pack was installed on all Clarion University-owned Windows computers with Office 2007.  For any questions or issues with the PDF option on a university machine, please contact the Computing Services Help Desk.  To install the PDF option on your personal non-university Windows computer, please go to the Microsoft PDF add-in Web Site

File Compatibility - Utilities

Note that Microsoft did release a Compatibility Pack for Windows that permits older versions of Office to read the new Office 2007 file formats.  This compatibility pack was installed on all Clarion University-owned Windows computers with Office 2007.  For any questions or issues with the compatibility pack on a university machine, please contact the Computing Services Help Desk.  To install the compatibility pack on your personal non-university Windows computer, please go to the Microsoft Windows Compatibility Pack Web Site

Microsoft did not release Office 2007 for the Mac; they are releasing Office 2008 for the Mac.  As of February 2008, Microsoft has only released a beta version of a compatibility pack for the Mac.  A final "production" release of the compatibility pack is expected "Spring 2008".  Based on the documentation with the beta release, the high operating system and hardware requirements for the Mac compatibility pack, reading Office 2007/2008 file formats from the Mac environment will continue to be problematic for many older Mac machines.  Everyone is encouraged to follow the guidelines noted above for saving Office 2007 files in alternate formats.  The compatibility pack downloads for the Mac can be monitored at the Microsoft Mactopia Downloads site.