Microsoft has opened Office 2007 to users of the previous versions of the productivity suite. At the end of the past week, the Redmond Company made available the Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats. The release addresses users of Office XP and Office 2003 and is designed to bridge the gap between formats.

With this move, Microsoft is building a foundation for the 2007 Office System. The generalization of Office 2007 file formats, mainly across Microsoft's own productivity suites, will be a strong argument for the standardization of Open XML. Still, the main purpose of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is to enable users to manage documents, workbooks, and presentations in the new Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats.

"By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats," Microsoft informed.

According to the Redmond Company, users of Microsoft Office XP and 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint should deploy all the High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update prior to downloading and installing the compatibility pack.

Users of Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 will have a longer road to travel before they will be able to integrate Office 2007 file formats in their suites, but Knowledge Base article 925451 is a good place to start.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack 2007 File Formats 1.0 was tested by Softpedia as being 100% Clean and is available for download here.