Microsoft Office 2007 

New File Formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Microsoft Office 2007 introduces new file formats which are incompatible with previous versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Files created with Office 2007 use the following file extensions by default:

If you are sharing files between Office 2007 applications and previous versions, use the following guidelines:

Troubleshooting known issues with the Compatibility Pack:
If you have a pre-2007 version of Microsoft Office installed on your computer along with the Compatibility Pack to open up new Office 2007 document formats, then occasionally you may try to open an Office 2007 document on your computer that will bring up the following error message:



To date, the latest version of the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack was released by Microsoft on November 19th, 2007. There has however been a service pack update that came out for the compatibility pack which you can download from here or by going to the Windows Update website. Nonetheless, the error message itself is still misleading and implies that you might have an old version of the compatibility pack installed on your computer. Clicking OK when the above error message shows up, takes you to the official download webpage for the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack but even if you do download & install the latest version and/or its updates, you will still get the above error message BUT ONLY IF the Office 2007 document that you are trying to open was created in a BETA (pre-release) version of Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft has a Knowledge Base help/support web article on this issue with possible workarounds to try and solve this issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926054

NOTE: USAO Information Services has yet to find any evidence that the workarounds offered in the above Microsoft Knowledge Base help/support article actually work. We suggest that you ask the person who created the original Office 2007 document to either save it in the 97-2003 document format OR upgrade their version of Microsoft Office 2007 on their computer to a final release version instead of a BETA release, and then resend the file.

Also, it is highly recommended that any computer with Microsoft Office 2007 installed on it, should always be kept as up-to-date as possible with the latest software updates for Microsoft Office; at the very least, the Service Pack 1 update for Office 2007 should be downloaded and installed either automatically through Windows Update or manually from Microsoft's website. Download the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1 (SP1) if you have Office 2007 installed on your computer: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9EC51594-992C-4165-A997-25DA01F388F5&displaylang=en

 

Microsoft Office for Mac

NOTE:
Help and Support for Macintosh users who have Microsoft Office 2008 installed, can be found here:
http://www.usao.edu/infoservices/office2008 (still under construction)

The new version of Microsoft Office for the Mac will be available for use on all the Apple Macintosh computers in the Davis Hall Graphic Arts Mac lab.

You can preview Office 2008 for Mac. The compatibility pack for Mac users (who have a pre-2008 version of Microsoft Office installed on their computers) is currently in development and won't be officially available until a few months after Office 2008 for Mac is delivered. Check our Office 2008 Downloads for the official (non-beta) Mac compatibility pack when it becomes available.

Sharing documents: Office 2007 PC users who need to share files with Mac users should save their documents as a "Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document" (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure they can be easily shared across platforms.

OpenOffice

The Windows version of the free OpenOffice productivity suite cannot currently open the new-format Microsoft Office 2007/2008 documents, although future support is planned. If you are exchanging documents with OpenOffice users, you should save your documents to Office 97-2003 or RTF formats. However, the Mac version of OpenOffice (a.k.a NeoOffice) can open Microsoft Office files that are created using Microsoft Office 2007/2008.

NOTE:
FYI, OpenOffice is a legally free software alternative to Microsoft Office.
You can download OpenOffice for Windows, Mac or Linux versions for FREE from here: http://www.openoffice.org

Microsoft Office 2007/2008 for sale at the USAO Bookstore

If you are a USAO student, staff, or faculty member, you can buy the academically priced version(s) of Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows or Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh from the USAO Bookstore, to use on your home computer. The USAO Bookstore sells:

• The Standard and Professional versions of Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows.
• The Home & Student Edition of Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh.

All versions are generously discounted but you must show proof of academic qualifications which would include a copy of your current student or faculty/staff ID. Details and prices can be found on the USAO Bookstore's official website:  http://www.usaobookstore.com/ePOS?this_category=53&store=338&form=shared3%2fgm%2fmain%2ehtml&design=338
 

Help and Support for Office 2007:

If you are a USAO student, faculty or staff member, please feel free to contact Information Services (Austin Hall, Room 113) for help regarding Microsoft Office 2007. Send any questions or comments to ithelp@usao.edu

Disclaimer: This information reflects the installation of Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows deployed at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, as accurately and completely as possible. Future offerings will be updated on this page when available

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Last Updated 15 May 2008 07:36 PM