Opening Word 2007 docx files in Word 2003

I've been emailed a Word 2007 .docx file and am trying to find out if it's
possible to open this in Word 2003, or do I need to ask the sender to use the
FileFormatConverters.exe for Office 2007 and resave it as a doc? Thanks in
advance.

You need to install the FileFormatConverters on your computer to be able to
open the Office 2007 file.

When saving from Word 2007 choose "Save as Word 97-2000" Otherwise it will
save as a DOCX, unless you are planning on opening it with Word 2007. Older
versions will not open DOCX documents.

I've installed the FileFormatConverters.exe on my PC but unfortunately when I
open the .docx document there is an error saying "Word experienced an error
trying to open the file. Try these suggestions . Check the file permissions
for the document or drive. Make sure there is sufficient free memory or disk
space. Open the file with the Text Recovery converter". I've tried these with
no success. The best workaround I've found is to rename the .docx to .zip,
extract it, open the document.xml in Word 2003 and use the backspace key to
pull all the text together.
Any other ideas?

I've seen a couple of online conversion tools for this:

docx2doc.com
docx-converter.com

The first one covers multiple target formats (docx to doc, docx to
html, docx to rtf and docx to txt) and works on most docx-files. The
drawback is that has a small charge for each conversion to cover
bandwidth costs.

The second is free, but has limited conversion options docx -> html
(with basic formatting)

One reason for the compat pack failing is that you need to have installed
*all* "high priority" Windows updates. They don't make this very clear on
the compat pack download page.

This link will take you to Windows Update:
http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate .

But if the converter is installed, it gives the user access to all the
new fonts that are in 2007....

[keefygeorge]

Hey Neither of you need any converter, just get your mate to re-save the document using save as. In the save as dialog box click on the document type drop down tab and scroll down to save as word 97-2003 document and you wont have any problems.
Or you could try re-naming the document with .doc at the end

I have to agree. With a simple converter you will avoid any future issues.
There are a lot of styles, fonts,and various apps included in word 07 that need the converter to be edited.
Microsoft have released their own addin for this isseu so id recommend checking for any updates.
Although this is an old post, and many issues have already been addressed by microsoft

I had the same problem. This solution worked for me:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=2001377

[swieder]

After getting tired of wasting time with Office 2007 I removed it and reinstalled Office 2003. I have installed the following: all the high priority patches for Windows XP, Office 2003 and SP3, Word viewer for 2007 files, Compatibility pack and its SP1.

I can not open Word 2007 files in Word 2003. I can not save docx files in 2003 and the viewer does not work. Excel and PPT work fine.

I have gone through the MSoft procedure to manually remove 2007. Reinstalled the Compatibility pack multiple times and still no success.

I get the dreaded message "There was an error opening the file."

This seems to be a common problem. Any advice on what to try next?

I have the same exact problem described in rpr's post. XP w/SP3,
compatibility pack installed, even checked the "confirm conversions" box to
convert macro-enabled word 2007 documents. I even reinstalled word 2003 but
that didn't work.

I have searched and searched all over for a solution to no avail. Does
anyone have any other suggestions?

I have a very similar problem on a MS Windows XP Pro. SP3.
The MS Office 2003 SP3 was installed with totally all components and
with all updates available at Microsoft.

Then the current Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office System was
installed (FileFormatConverters.exe) followed by its SP1
(compatibilitypacksp1-kb940289-fullfile-en-us.exe).
Also available updates for Office 2007 were installed.

Now, if I try to open a docx file by Word 2003, I see the following
message in the status bar:
"Word is converting mydoc.docx"
but then the following meaningless error pops up:
"There was an error opening the file."

That particular docx file can be opened with a ZIP archiver (e.g.
7-Zip) and all the components can be extracted from it. Also I'm able
to open the file with OpenOffice.org Writer 3.0.1 without any
problems. So I'd say that the file is not damaged. I've been told that
it was produced by Word 2007.

I have some other docx files that may be opened successfully by that
particular installation of Word 2003 SP3 + Compatibility Pack.

I'm also able to save a docx file from Word 2003 and open it back.

My conclusion is that the Compatibility Pack has a bug when converting
some docx files (probably the conversion breaks at some point and Word
simply gives that idiotic error).

Is there a way to debug that problem more closely or to tell the
converter to produce a log?

I've seen similar problem reports at many support forums but not found
any useful advice so far.

[Helmuthmuth]

I run win2000 and when I look for

Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, click Start , click All Programs , click Accessories , right-click Command Prompt , and then click Run as administrator . If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow .

I simply find I can not right-click command-promt and choose run as admin: I have all the normal possibilities, copy, paste, open, scan etc etc etc... suggestions?