Use Office 2003 to open 2007 documents

Here’s an example of the problem. We are using Word 2003 to try to open a document saved in Word 2007’s ‘.docx’ file format. Word 2003 pops up a dialogue box explaining the problem. Clicking OK would launch a web browser and open the Office Compatibility Pack. However, it’s possible to install the Office Compatibility Pack before ever encountering this message.

Before proceeding, we would advise using Windows Update to ensure that Windows and Office are up to date. The easiest way to do this is to launch a web browser, type http://update.microsoft.com into the Address or Location bar and press Enter. Now follow the prompts. Next, visit www.snipca.com/x1701 and, when the page appears, click the Download button. If the download doesn’t start automatically within 30 seconds, click the Start download link on the new page that has appeared. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and then choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder.

Locate and double-click the file just downloaded (called FileFormatConverters.exe). Ignore any security warnings to launch the Office Compatibility Pack installation wizard. Tick the box to accept the licence and then click Continue. Installation should proceed and complete automatically. Click OK at the end. And that’s it – you should now be able to open Office 2007/2010 files in Office 2003 applications. Do note, though, that Office 2003 applications do not include all the same features as newer versions of Office, so resaving the documents in an Office 2003 application may result in the loss of document formatting or other features.