Meaning of extension ".docx" in MS Word 2007"

Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc" extension
in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

docx denotes that the file is in Word 2007 file format; docm denotes that
the file is in Word 2007 format and that it contains macros. A docx format
file cannot contain macros.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"sheana" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch of
xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much easier to
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also, as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx" is
the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

On Mar 29, 4:32*am, "Yves Dhondt" wrote:
It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch of
xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much easier to
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also, as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx" is
the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message

...



Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

this works also:

Program Name: NW Docx File Converter (Docx2Rtf)
Author: Jack Lewis - NativeWinds
Creation: 2007-10-03
Updated: 2009-06-04
Version: 3.8 Freeware

Description: A program to convert Word 2007 Docx and Dotx,
OpenOffice Sxw and Odt files
to the universal rtf format without needing MS Office
2007 or OpenOffice
installed. Docx2Rtf can also open, view and print -
pdf, html, rtf, txt files and now
even PalmOS Database Documents (*.pdb) and Aportis
(*.prc) files are supported.


and google provides free conversion for docx to doc and xlsx to xls
files

Can you tell me what I have to do to have Google provide file conversion for
..docx to .doc? Or does it do this automatically? Thanks in advance.

"Robert Macy" wrote in message
...
On Mar 29, 4:32 am, "Yves Dhondt" wrote:
It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch of
xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much easier
to
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also, as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically
capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx"
is
the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message

...



Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

this works also:

Program Name: NW Docx File Converter (Docx2Rtf)
Author: Jack Lewis - NativeWinds
Creation: 2007-10-03
Updated: 2009-06-04
Version: 3.8 Freeware

Description: A program to convert Word 2007 Docx and Dotx,
OpenOffice Sxw and Odt files
to the universal rtf format without needing MS Office
2007 or OpenOffice
installed. Docx2Rtf can also open, view and print -
pdf, html, rtf, txt files and now
even PalmOS Database Documents (*.pdb) and Aportis
(*.prc) files are supported.


and google provides free conversion for docx to doc and xlsx to xls
files

On Mar 30, 5:45*am, "sheana" wrote:
Can you tell me what I have to do to have Google provide file conversion for
.docx to .doc? *Or does it do this automatically? Thanks in advance.

"Robert Macy" wrote in message

...



On Mar 29, 4:32 am, "Yves Dhondt" wrote:
It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch of
xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much easier
to
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also, as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically
capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx"
is
the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message

...

Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

this works also:

Program Name: * NW Docx File Converter (Docx2Rtf)
Author: * * * * Jack Lewis - NativeWinds
Creation: * * * 2007-10-03
Updated: * * * *2009-06-04
Version: * * * *3.8 Freeware

Description: * *A program to convert Word 2007 Docx and Dotx,
OpenOffice Sxw and Odt files
* * * * * * * *to the universal rtf *format without needing MS Office
2007 or OpenOffice
* * * * * * * *installed. Docx2Rtf can also open, view and print -
pdf, html, rtf, txt files and now
* * * * * * * *even PalmOS Database Documents (*.pdb) and Aportis
(*.prc) files are supported.

and google provides free conversion for docx to doc and xlsx to xls
files

here is an online service
http://www.docx2doc.com/convert/docx-to-doc

I can't find the google URL where I did several conversions.

Looked everywhere, too, even did a search for online coverters using
google and no reference to google came up.

If you have Word 2007, just click the Office button, then Save As, and set
the type to Word 97-2003.

If you have Word 2003 (I think Word 2000 and 2002, too), you can use the
free Office 2007 Compatibility Pack:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/pr...686761033.aspx


--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word Bible
Blog: http://word.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

"sheana" wrote in message
...
Can you tell me what I have to do to have Google provide file conversion
for .docx to .doc? Or does it do this automatically? Thanks in advance.

"Robert Macy" wrote in message
...
On Mar 29, 4:32 am, "Yves Dhondt" wrote:
It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you
can
change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a bunch
of
xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much
easier to
create and manipulate Office documents without user interaction. Also,
as
".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend to require less disk
space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically
capable
of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft released a
compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used by older
products. However, there are still a lot of people out there who use
Word
2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if you frequently
exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier, you might want to
consider saving your documents in the old ".doc" format. If not, ".docx"
is
the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message

...



Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

this works also:

Program Name: NW Docx File Converter (Docx2Rtf)
Author: Jack Lewis - NativeWinds
Creation: 2007-10-03
Updated: 2009-06-04
Version: 3.8 Freeware

Description: A program to convert Word 2007 Docx and Dotx,
OpenOffice Sxw and Odt files
to the universal rtf format without needing MS Office
2007 or OpenOffice
installed. Docx2Rtf can also open, view and print -
pdf, html, rtf, txt files and now
even PalmOS Database Documents (*.pdb) and Aportis
(*.prc) files are supported.


and google provides free conversion for docx to doc and xlsx to xls
files

On 3/29/2010 7:32 AM, Yves Dhondt wrote:
It's a new file format. ".docx" files are basically zip archives (you
can change .docx to .zip and open the files in Windows) containing a
bunch of xml files.

The advantage of the ".docx" format is that it implements the 'open xml'
standard (both ECMA and ISO certified). This is important as governments
world wide are starting to ask for open standards for documents. The new
format also has some advantages for programmers: they make it much
easier to create and manipulate Office documents without user
interaction. Also, as ".docx" files are actually zip archives, they tend
to require less disk space.

As it is a new format, older versions of Word are not automatically
capable of handling the newer files. To solve this issue, Microsoft
released a compatibility pack so that the new file formats can be used
by older products. However, there are still a lot of people out there
who use Word 2003 or earlier and who haven't installed the pack. So if
you frequently exchange files with people using Word 2003 or earlier,
you might want to consider saving your documents in the old ".doc"
format. If not, ".docx" is the way to go.

Yves

"sheana" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have MS Word 2007 and Windows 7. Can you tell me what the extension
".docx" means when I save a document? I always saw only the ".doc"
extension in previous versions. Thanks in advance.

Although I have not yet encountered the problem (my Word 2007 is too
new) I have read that the Doc form (Word 97-2003) created by Word 2007
is not a pure Word 97-2003 doc and sometimes can still not be opened by
an earlier Word. The recommended work-around has suggested is to save as
rtf in those cases. Has there been a solution for this?
Jeff

wrote in message
...

Although I have not yet encountered the problem (my Word 2007 is too new)
I have read that the Doc form (Word 97-2003) created by Word 2007 is not a
pure Word 97-2003 doc and sometimes can still not be opened by an earlier
Word. The recommended work-around has suggested is to save as rtf in those
cases. Has there been a solution for this?
Jeff

The problem you describe is probably that at
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org

On 4/1/2010 2:26 AM, Graham Mayor wrote:
wrote in message
...

Although I have not yet encountered the problem (my Word 2007 is too new)
I have read that the Doc form (Word 97-2003) created by Word 2007 is not a
pure Word 97-2003 doc and sometimes can still not be opened by an earlier
Word. The recommended work-around has suggested is to save as rtf in those
cases. Has there been a solution for this?
Jeff

The problem you describe is probably that at
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm

I have not yet come across it but yes that sounds like what I heard.
Sounds like it would be a problem.