View .DOCX files without requiring MS Word 2007

Posted by Anuj Seth

December 5, 2008

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Microsoft Office 2007 introduced a new file format in OpenXML. You would have noticed MS Word 2007 files being saved in .DOCX format and MS Excel 2007 being saved in .XLSX format. Basically a “X” got appended to the file extension signifying the new file format.

Unfortunately, this file format does not open in older versions of Microsoft Office. So, if you are using MS Office 2003 or older, and received a file in this new format, you were left wondering on how to open these files.

There are several options available to you. If you need the flexibility of editing these files, you need to download the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft. This will enable you to open the new file formats in Office 2003.

If you want to just view these files, there is an even simpler option. Download the OpenXML Document Viewer plugin for Firefox. Currently, this plugin supports Word 2007 .DOCX format.

The OpenXML Viewer Team has this video on YouTube demonstrating the usage of the plugin.