Ive seen many references to OSXs abilities when handling various file types, including .doc , MSs Office default file format, however, Ive just come across this in, which?:
“.docx The new default file format for Office 2007.
Files created in this format have greater flexibility but are not compatible with Office 2003 or earlier versions if Office.”
I was wondering how this impacts on OS X `s ability to handle .docx
Take care
Vic
The latest version of Pages is supposed to open .docx; NeoOffice 2.2 definitely opens .docx and the Excel equivalent format without problem; MacLink Plus deLuxe 16 opens Office 2007 files, apparently. I don’t suppose Scrivener will, and I don’t think Nisus Writer Pro does … don’t know about Mellel.
Mark
Mark,
Thank you very much for your speedy and comprehensive reply.
My daughter has just left teaching after ten years, and gone back to university to do Occupational Therapy. Part of her tooling up for the job, was to buy Office 2007 for her HP laptop. I don`t think she realises yet, that she could have problems with it.
Thanks Mark,
Take care,
Vic
Hi Vic
I presume that Office 2007 will export to Office 98/2000/XP format and to RTF … but my experience of people who go for Office under Windoze is that exporting is something most of them’ve never even dreamed of.
Mark
You can set up the default “Save as” format to the older version. I had to do this for my wife. It occasionally still manages to save as .docx much to the chagrin of her professors for some reason.
I guess the professors in question don’t have Macs and therefore have never had to confront file format issues before!
Mark
I think it’s a safe assumption that they don’t use Macs. The University even has online classes that “require” Microsoft Windows XP… whatever that means… it’s a crazy world sometimes.
Mark,
the .docx quote is from Computer which?s Jargon Buster column. It does say, "Not compatible with 2003 and all before." I cant vouch for its accuracy. It doesn`t surprise me though, that MS would pull a stunt like this.
But thanks again Mark.
Robert, hello,
Thanks for your response. Ill chat to her about the Save as option. Weve had a chat about the wisdom of backing up to external drives etc. Shes got that pretty well covered. Shes linked into the Uni`s computer set up as well as other options.
I`ve just this minute spoken to her, about the above, and she informs me, that the Uni. has some device in place, that enables them to read .docx files.
Ive given her your Save as` work around for other non-uni stuff, and she says, “Thanks.”
Thanks Robert
Take care,
Vic
vic-k - No problem at all. Glad I could help.
MS has a free converter for Windows folk who do not have Word 2007. There are various vendors who offer Win converters for pay and/or web-based.
MS also has a free converter for Macs but it is still stewing in a beta 0.2 version.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx
Apple’s Pages definitely opens .docx documents.
No doubt Leopard will handle .docx documents (View them in Quicklook, open them on Preview, for example.)
–Greg
P.S. The Microsoft Office for Mac team sez: “we continue to recommend that you advise friends and colleagues who use Office 2007 and collaborate regularly with Mac users to save their documents as a “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure that the files can be robustly shared across platforms while waiting for final availability of Office 2008 for Mac.” Cf. http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2007/05/15/get-converted.aspx
I’ll comment on OS X’s built-in ability to handle .docx a little later, when Leopard comes out. Let’s just say it’s just as wonderful as OS X’s ability to handle .doc files. 
Best,
Keith
A big THANK YOU to all of you for your responses.
Take care
Vic