How to Open Word 2007 in earlier versions of MS Office

If you use MS Office XP, MS Office 2002/2003 and you want to open documents created in Office 2007 formats, you must install the Office Compatibility Pack. It’s free to download from Microsoft and easy to install.

Download and install Compatibility Pack

You need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack if you want to use Microsoft Office 2007 documents in Office XP, Office 2002 and 2003.

To download the Office Compatibility Pack go to:

After you install the compatibility pack successfully, you should be able to open the .docx files in MS Word 2003.

Word 2002/2002/2003

You can now create, open, edit, and save the following Word 2007 file formats:

  • Word Document (*.docx)
  • Word Macro-Enabled Document (*.docm)

Excel 2003 and Excel 2002

In Excel 2003 and Excel 2002, you can now create, open, edit, and save the following Excel 2007 file formats:

  • Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)
  • Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)
  • Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
  • Excel Template (*.xltx)
  • Excel Macro-Enabled Template (*.xltm)
  • Excel Add-In (*.xlam)

Additionally, you can use Windows Explorer to open files and save files in the Excel 2007 formats.

UPDATE:

1. Please install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

2. Scripts If your Microsoft Word 2000/2002 use complex scripts, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925451.

3. System Administrators: The administrative template for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint converters contained within the Compatibility Pack is available for download.

4. Update: The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available here.