Office 2007 and Office 2003

Incompatibilities in Document Sharing

LITS is currently involved in a strategic process for upgrading MHC departments to Office 2007.  Incompatibility issues exist between Office 2007 and previous versions of Office. While files created in Office 2003 can be easily read in Office 2007, files created in the new Office 2007 file format cannot be opened by users with Office version 2003 or older, nor can they be read by any Macintosh version of Office at all!

To alleviate the existing incompatibility issues, LITS recommends:

INSTALL MICROSOFT’S COMPATIBILITY PACK.
The Compatibility Pack is for PC users only; there is nothing currently available for the Macintosh. Once installed, Office 2003 users can open, edit and save Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 files.  

The Office Compatibility Pack is available on our local server--

From Windows XP Select Start --> Run.  In the “Open” box, type
\\ambr\distribution\Office2007\Compatibility_pack

Copy the folder to your desktop.  Install directions are available within the folder.  Read the instructions and then run the installer.

OFFICE 2007 USERS - “SAVE DOWN" 
Staff, faculty and students who use Office 2007 should remember to “save down” to the Office 2003 format when saving their documents. This will ensure that others on campus who are still using Office 2003 will be able to open their files. In all Office 2007 applications, select the Office Button in the upper left corner, select “save as”, select “97-2003” option.

• Note: You can set your Office applications to automatically save in this format. Select the “Options” button at the bottom of the same menu. Select the “Save” --> under Save files in this format, click on the dropdown arrow and  select “97-2003”.

LITS can deploy and install the Compatibility Pack over the network to faculty and staff computers using our Deploy Server during scheduled times.  Please call our helpdesk at x2600 for schedule information.

Watch for more news on transitioning to Office 2007, as the migration evolves.  The Help Desk (x2600) can assist with questions regarding the Compatibility Packs or “saving down” in Office 2007.  Please feel free to email sleduc@mtholyoke.edu or call x2348 if you have any other questions regarding the migration timeline or the process itself.

PDF Version of this page, with screenshots.