It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch of
xml files.
The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much easierto
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also, as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.
As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx" is
the way to go.
Yves
Can you tell me what I have to do to have Google provide file conversion for
.docx to .doc? Or does it do this automatically? Thanks in advance.
Although I have not yet encountered the problem (my Word 2007 is tooIt's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you
can change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a
bunch of xml files.
The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much
easier to create and manipulate Office documents without user
interaction. Also, as ".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend
to require less disk space.
As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically
capable of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft
released a compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used
by older products. However, there are still a lot of people out there
who use Word 2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if
you frequently exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier,
you might want to consider saving your documents in the old ".doc"
format. If not, ".docx" is the way to go.
Yves
Although I have not yet encountered the problem (my Word 2007 is too new)
I have read that the Doc form (Word 97-2003) created by Word 2007 is not a
pure Word 97-2003 doc and sometimes can still not be opened by an earlier
Word. The recommended work-around has suggested is to save as rtf in those
cases. Has there been a solution for this?
Jeff
I have not yet come across it but yes that sounds like what I heard.The problem you describe is probably that at
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm
I have not yet come across it but yes that sounds like what I heard.
Sounds like it would be a problem.
Now that I think further about it, I believe what I heard is not aboutThe problem you describe is probably that at
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm
Thank you. Very helpful.I have added a few further notes of clarification to my web page
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm.
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