Office 2000: Converter for Word 2007 to Word 2000

TechTip 7:  Converting .docx files to .doc

The new Word documents have changed their file extension from a “.doc” to a “.docx”  Now this is no big deal if you have the latest version of Microsoft Word 2007.  Unfortunately your teacher machines don’t have Office 2007 and to upgrade all teachers and students to the new MS Office suite is quite costly and will probably not happen for a while.  So what do you do when a student comes to you with a Word file that you cannot open?  One thing is to just remind them that they all should be saving their files in the 97-2003 document format which is an option when they save a file in Word 2007.  This is only a temporary fix though and many students are forgetting to save it as a “.doc.”  So is there a solution that is permanent for the Snowflake School District?  After “Googling” for a while I found out that the answer is “Yes.”  Follow the steps below and you will be able to open up the new “.docx” file with out a hitch (of course not having a hitch is just a theory, on my machine it worked fine).

1. Click on the following link.
1. FileFormatConverters.exe
2. A box like this should open up on the screen.
1. 
2. Click the “Save” button.
3. Navigate to where you want to save it on your computer.
1. 
2. I prefer saving all of my download to my “Desktop.”
3. Click the “Save” button.
4. It will then go through the process of downloading the file.
1. 
5. When it is complete a “Run” button will be clickable. (I know “clickable” is not a word, but it sounds good.  If Shakespeare can make up a word then why can’t I)?
6. Another box will open.
1. 
2. Click the “Run” button here also.
7. At the bottom left corner of the following window, click in the box to make a check mark.
1. 
2. Click “Continue.”
8. The following window will pop up.
1. 
2. Wait for it to do it “thing.”
9. You will then get a confirmation window.
1. 
2. Click “OK”

You should now be able to open up MS Word 2007 files on your teacher machine.