Problems Opening Word 2007 Docs


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Problems opening Word 2007 'docx' format documents in Word 2002/3

	When Microsoft introduced the controversial new version 2007 of its Word processor, it adopted a different file format based on XML technology. To maintain compatibility with earlier versions, a compatibility pack was produced which allows older versions of Word to open and save documents in 2007 'docx' format. This converter does not provide those earlier versions with the full range of compatibility for new features introduced in Word 2007 and so some users have noted an apparent problem when trying to open Word 2007 documents based on Word 2007 templates, despite having the converter installed. The converter either cannot identify the format of the document and inserts garbage, or it does recognize that it is a Word 2007 document, but shows the user a dialog box containing garbage. In the case of the former, check the Confirm conversion at open option in Tools > Options > General.

	Then when you attempt to open the file again you will be asked to choose the converter. Select Word 2007 Document and click OK.

	If Word recognised the document type or you indicated the document type in the above dialog, Word will display the following dialog box showing garbage in the preview window that none of the text encoding options will display as readable text.

	Simply click OK or Cancel - it doesn't matter which, but what happens next will depend on the choice. If you click OK, you will see the following dialog:

	If you OK that dialog or click Cancel from the previous dialog you will see another message box:

	OK this dialog and the document should open normally, albeit the layout may have changed for the reasons indicated.