UC Merced and Office 2003/2007

Microsoft Office 2007 has been available to consumer and businesses for several months now. Users who are not ready to upgrade or choose not to upgrade will find problems with Office 2007 user who exchange documents written in Word 2007, prepare presentations with PowerPoint 2007, or work with charts in Excel 2007. The new version of Microsoft Office 2007 uses a new file format and file extension that does not work with programs directly on computers running Office 2003, XP, 2000 or Office 97.

Are there alternatives for users who are not ready for the upgrade or who have decided not to upgrade as a workaround? The short answer is yes. Microsoft has created document converters, viewers, and other useful add-ons that will help older Office users.

How do I Open Office 2007 Documents in Office 2003?

UC Merced Information Technology now has a specially packaged file format converter from Microsoft to help address the file format and file extension incompatibilities. The package will let you read Office 2007 documents in MS Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003. (E.g. open .docx file with Word 2003 or .pptx with PowerPoint 2003). Moreover, the pack installs the latest Office 2003 patches necessary, before running the installer.

There are several methods to performing this action:

1) You can patch Office with Windows update

2) You can download the following package that IT has assembled.

How do I Create and Save Documents in Office 2003 for Office 2007 users?

The task is simple. Create a blank document and use the Save As command in your version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint to the format you prefer. (E.g. Word 2007 Document (*.docx))

Tip: You do not require Windows Vista to run Office 2007. It will work perfect with Windows XP SP2.

If you have any questions, please let us know by emailing or calling the helpdesk.


Looking for help?

We offer a number of tutorials and FAQs available in the Guides & FAQs section.

If you have any questions, problems, or comments, please contact the IT Help Desk via email at helpdesk@ucmerced.edu, via phone at 209.228.HELP (4357), or visit them in the Classroom and Office Building room 132A.