Word 2007 Annoyance Hehe

[siefwbas 0]

ok i work part time for this internet caffe... the amount of customers asking about their word documents is shocking... we run msoffice 2000 on our computers and about 80 percent of our customers comes in with .docx work ...i spent alot of time explaining and guiding those coming with their laptop how to save them in 97-2003 compatible mode... does the docx have any advantage over the old .doc?

[Plenoptic 0]

No they changed the file extension for a lot of their new products so that the new stuff won't be compatible with the old stuff. That way they make more money off of you because they want you to buy the new programs or upgrade so that you will be able to open those files. I would just make it easier on yourself and download the compatibility pack that way it'll save the people you are working with hassle. You can download it here. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download

[Saint_Michael 3]

Interestingly enough there is a difference however its a web application reason why, the .docx extension has to do with using XML doc type. This quote should better explain it:

 

Office Word is an authoring program that gives you the ability to create and share documents using a set of writing tools. This is the new upcoming format for Microsoft Office documents. It is a combination of XML architecture and ZIP compression for size reduction. Microsoft promises the format will be open (published for anyone to use) and prior versions of Office, using components provided by Microsoft for Office 2000, XP, and 2003 will be available to perform document conversion. Remember that these are promises by Microsoft. We have yet to see the actuals. This format is not the same as the OpenDocument standard, also an XML-based standard being developed as a true open standard (see the OpenDocument Fellowship for more information).

However, install this file on all your computers and they will be able to open .docx files on word 2000, and 2003 and you won't have customers leaving.

 

Download Pack Here

Edited August 11, 2007 by Saint_Michael (see edit history)

[delivi 0]

docx files are the normal document files in XML format, the reason for 'x' in the extension. the docx file is a zipped file with many folders and files, it includes the document in xml format and all the style information and the images you added in the document. SO you can use any normal zip program to open the .docx document and retrive the data from the xml files without any formatting. So you can access your data in .docx files even if you do not have Word 2007 or the .docx viewer.

[dastrophy 0]

The main advantage at the moment for the docx is that it works similar to a website, i.e. when you put something in a file, it only refers to it: for example, a picture.If I copy and pasted a picture into an old .doc format word document, the picture was taken apart and stored as part of the file....at the same compression rating as a bitmap: to ensure no loss (Microsoft thinking: don't ask)As a result the files ended up VERY large and rather slow to load up.Also, (due to the recognition of this) the majority ofcontent wasn't stored in the file, only a link was made to it.Alot of people found this out, when they pasted a video into their word document, e-mailed it and the poor receiver got an empty space with "Could not find C:\Doc....\a.avi"With the new format (I believe - don't quote me ) if you paste a jpeg in, it will store the jpeg in the zipped docx, and then when viewed it will call upon the picture stored: a lot more efficient, and you can permanently attach media to a document.And the moral of this story?1. If you want to send video, don't put it in a Word/Powerpoint: that is just stupid2. If you really wanted to, you should have used Openoffice, who have been using the .xml format as an option for several years now!hmmmmmm....I could almost submit that as a tutorial....