If you have to handle copy submitted by other people the information in this feature could save you a lot of grief. And if you don't think it applies to you, just wait!
This looks at the recent changes to Microsoft Word; in particular to the format now used to save documents. From now on Word documents saved in Word 2007 and later have a "docx" extension. If you haven't yet had to deal with one of these you soon will as Word 2007 starts to find itself on desktop machines around the world.
So why is this a problem? Simple - earlier versions of MS Word can't open them!
Docx is a new format that saves your word-processed material in what is known as an XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) format. As Microsoft says: "This enables improved integration with external data sources and systems."
This is all well and good, but for the time being Docx could prove to be a major headache for anyone receiving Word documents for editing.
If you receive such a file the.Docx extension is the first giveaway. The second is that clicking on it will result in your machine failing to find a program that can open it. At this stage you have a number of choices.
The first is to buy a copy of Word 2007 or Office 2007, although I would hold fire at the moment - there are cheaper alternatives.
The second is to go back to the originating author and get them to save the file in an earlier ".doc" format that you can handle. As a short-term solution this isn't a bad idea, but this pre-supposes that the original author can a) be found and b) be bothered.
The third solution involves getting your hands dirty, and if you can't handle this find someone to help you who can.
If you are using a Windows PC and have an earlier version of Word visit the Microsoft website at and search for the " Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack".
This is a hefty 26Mb download, but should allow you to open Microsoft Office Word 2007.docx or.docm files with Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2002, or Word 2000.
As Microsoft says: "By using the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, you can open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word." Take note of the word "some". My own tests showed that my copy of Word 2000 would indeed now open docx Word documents, but it lost all the formatting, tables and designated fonts. Not a huge problem if you are only dealing with raw text, but do beware.
If you are a Mac user you could also buy a copy of Word 2007, or you could be a bit canny. I have it on good authority that the next versions of the free NeoOffice and OpenOffice packages for both Mac and PC will support docx too.
After a bit of playing around I discovered that docx is actually a zip archive - remember those? If you change the file extension from docx to.zip you can now "unzip" the file into its component parts.
You'll find that there are now a whole host of separate files that go to make up the original docx document. Navigate to the unzipped "word" folder and you will find a document called "document.xml".
If you use Safari to open this file you will be presented with the original text. You can now copy and paste this into your older copy of Word. Unfortunately, you will have lost all the carriage returns, but hey, it's free!
Technically, you can open this XML file in a PC browser too, but chances are that you will see all the tags that make up the file too - Safari strips these out for you.
Alternatively, search on Google for "Docx Convertor" and you will find a Mac Widget that you can install. This is a free drag-and-drop utility that is linked to a website at It didn't work for me, but could be worth a try.
I am sure that there will be other solutions popping up over the coming months, but these should get you going. As I said at the beginning, sooner or later this will become a problem.
ENDS
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