How to Convert Office 2007 files to a 2003 Readable Format

More and more companies are adapting to Microsoft Office 2007. Today at work, I've received reports that were saved as .xlsx using Excel 2007. This is quite annoying especially that my Office Excel version is still 2003 and I can't easily upgrade to 2007. You see, I have a few Macros programmed in 2003 that will not run if the Office installed in my work lappy is upgraded. (And I am so lazy to re program it using FSO! :P). So what I did is searched online and found an answer to my dilemma.

The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats makes it possible for users of Office 2003 applications to open and edit Office 2007 documents. The latest version of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats can be downloaded for free from Microsoft. However, it took me 20 minutes to download and install the file format converter from Microsoft. Also, users of the Microsoft Office XP and 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint—please install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

Another way is also to use other File Converter. I found an MS Excel Conversion and Sheet Manipulation Utility from Softinterface,Inc. It was a cool converter which lets you convert Excel files to and from XLS/XLSX/Text/CSV/HTML/XML without requiring MS Excel to be installed. If you do have MS Excel, 'Convert XLS' will support all file types in addition to TXT, XML, CSV etc. You can download and try their software for FREE HERE!