How to convert a .docx file to .doc file

Some instructors and students have been encountering some issues with the new MS Office 2007 .docx file format. They can not open their files in older versions of MS Office or Open Office. If you need to edit or read your .docx file in an older version of MS Word, try converting the file to a .doc by using the tools and directions below.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
–Brief Description:
Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

Download: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Works 2000 Converter for Word 97/2000 Users
–Brief Description: The Works 2000 converter allows you to open a Works 2000 .wps file in Word and to save a Word document as a Works 2000 .wps file.

Download: Works 2000 Converter for Word 97/2000 Users

Office File Converter Pack–Brief Description
This download provides file converters and image filters for Microsoft Office programs, from Microsoft Office 97 to Microsoft Office 2003.

Download: Office File Converter Pack

For Mac OS X users, you can download the following converter tools to convert a .docx file into a readable format:

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter 0.2

This will convert the file into a rich text format.

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1.1 (Beta) This will convert the file into a rich text format.

–Robin Lu

This entry was posted on October 2, 2007 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Inst. Technology, MS Office, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “How to convert a .docx file to .doc file”

  1. Mickey Says:
    October 8, 2007 at 8:57 am

    Another optional solution for openning DOCX files: “docXConverter 2.0″
    docXConverter is a program for opening and using files saved in the new Word 2007 default format, DOCX or in the new Excel 2007 default format, XLSX. docXConverter allows you to open docx or xlsx files with a program currently installed on your computer even if none of your programs are capable of doing so on their own.
    The docXConverter solution was developed to complement the Microsoft solution and is targeted to users that cannot use the Microsoft solution. These users fall typically in two categories:
    1- Users that do not own Microsoft Office but still want to open docx or xlsx files, like other word processors users graphic or desktop publishing programs users (who are using mostly Adobe products but not only) or people who use their computer mostly for surfing or emailing,
    2- Users of earlier versions of Microsoft Office that are not covered by Microsoft compatibility pack.
    See: http://www.panergy-software.com/products/docxconverter/features.html

  2. lemasney Says:
    October 8, 2007 at 9:07 am

    Thanks for your advertisement help, Mickey. Mickey works for the company he’s telling us about there. I wish his product was free or open source, but it’s not. It costs between $20-30 depending on the flavor. It does seem like a useful tool for people who must deal with the MS Office menagerie.

    Another alternative would for everyone to use OpenOffice.org right from the start, so that they wouldn’t then need to ask people to buy products to convert their files into usability.

  3. Mickey Says:
    October 8, 2007 at 11:54 am

    You do not need office to use docXConverter, so no Office costs or compatibility downloads.

  4. lemasney Says:
    October 10, 2007 at 9:23 am

    Incidentally, there’s also a project in the works to provide plug ins for Office to save to Open Document Formats for use in OpenOffice. So Huzzah to that. http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter

  5. vaseem Says:
    February 1, 2008 at 7:07 am

    Hi,

    When I create .docx using Open XML SDK provided by Microsoft, the compatibility pack does not open the file correctly.

    I’m using a .docx template and programmatically fill data. The filled in data is not visible through Word 2003 with compatibility pack, but it shows correctly in Word 2007

    Regds,
    Vaseem
    shaik.vaseem@otis.com

  6. Angel Says:
    April 7, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    Hi Vaseem,

    You have to remember, even though you are opening the .docx using the compatibility pack, you are still in an older version of MS Word, thus these features may be supported in the new Office 2007 but not (or never was) in Office 2003. If you are working between the two programs, it’s best to work in a older file format like Office 97-2003 doc file. You can save out a doc file in Office 2007 by going to Save As. Then, choose 97-2003 Office format (.doc). I hope this helps :-)

  7. vaseem Says:
    April 22, 2008 at 5:11 am

    How to Programatically convert .docx to .pdf without using word object?

  8. lemasney Says:
    April 23, 2008 at 2:02 am

    You may be able to use PDF Creator in order to make a PDF without opening Word simply by creating a shortcut to the printer created when you install PDF Creator on the desktop, and dragging and dropping the docx to the icon, which will automatically use Word’s engine to generate a postscript file via PDF creator without actually opening Word. But you still must have word 2003 with the compatibility pack installed or you must have word 2007 installed, or you must have the word 2007 viewer installed. You won’t be able to do it without having something present that can read docx natively.

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