Office 2007 and you

Here at the commission we are actively in the process of upgrading all of our computers to both Windows Vista and Office 2007. Typically, changes such as this would not effect you but this time around it just might. With this latest upgrade of Office, Microsoft has finally moved to a new file format which, on its face, is incompatible with older versions of Office. So, if we were to send you a file saved in Word 2007, as it stands right now, it will not open in your copy of Office 2003. Now, Office 2007 does offer us the ability to save documents in the older file format and we will strive to do this whenever we are sending out documents. However, as you well know, remembering to choose Save As… instead of just clicking the save button can sometimes be difficult. Additionally, chances are your patrons are starting to come in with Office 2007 files since we are quickly approaching the one year mark for the latest version of Office. So, what can you do to help yourself, your patrons, and us, short of upgrading? Simple. Just head on over to the Microsoft Web site and download the free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. The program is free and simple to install. Once installed, you’ll be able to open 2007-formatted files, and edit them. This software will not allow you to re-save the file in the 2007 format but that generally isn’t a problem. Thanks for you help.