If you have Office 2003 and are unable to open files created in Office 2007, you just need to install a quick converter patch.

We have the patch hosted on our website – use this link to download and install it and you should then be able to open Office 2007 files: http://studentwebs.coloradocollege.edu/updates/FileFormatConverters.exe

This occurs because Office 2007 uses an entirely new, XML-based format to make them much more compatible (yes, we see the irony in that statement, but it’s actually a good move going ahead into the future, it just makes it hard for those of us still using previous versions).

The same patch is available for Macintosh with Office 2004 support to open Office 2008 documents. The patch is available here.