14 DAY TRIAL // With the commercial availability of the 2007 Microsoft Office System, users should begin taking into account the new XML-based formats. Even if you do not plan to upgrade to the latest version of Office, the usage of XML is bound to increase as it is the default document format in Office 2007.
"Whether you adopt Office 2007 or not, your organization will be affected by the new document format it introduces, because you can't control the format in which users outside your organization will send documents to users within your organization. In the wake of the hype surrounding Office 2007's launch, be prepared for some users within your organization to purchase it on their own initiative and install it on their company-owned equipment," revealed Michael A. Silver, Gartner Research VP.
But this advice is also available for home users not only for those in a corporate environment. Microsoft has a solution in place addressing this very matter. The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats is designed to enable users to "open, edit and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007."
The Compatibility Pack offers support for Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003. However, users of the latter two also have the possibility to install the October 2006 Office Update. "The October 2006 Office Update provides the ability to open and save Office Open XML documents using the standard "open" and "save as" dialogue boxes in Office XP and 2003. Because of the previously mentioned architectural difference, Word 2000, XP and 2003 will be able to open and save the XML format after just the Compatibility Pack is installed," added Silver.
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack 2007 File Formats 1.0 was tested by Softpedia as being 100% Clean and is available for download here.