Dealing+with+Newer+Office+File+Formats

=Or ... How to Solve the "Help! The Computer Can't Read My File" Problem=

Newer versions of Microsoft Office save Word documents with a .docx extension, which older versions of Word, which use the .doc, can't read. The same applies with PowerPoint (newer versions use the .pptx extension instead of .ppt) and Excel (newer versions use the .xlsx extension instead of .xls). Students regularly visit the library and try to download files in the newer format and learn that the computers aren't able to read those files.Students also have problems dealing with files they created in Pages. This article is written to deal with documents created using newer versions of Office, but the same basic solutions apply for all files with compatibility problems.

Here are a couple of work-arounds for this problem:
 * You can upload the file to Google Docs. Google Docs is able to read .docx, .pptx, and .xlsx files. You need a Google account to use this service.
 * Go to zamzar.com, where you can upload your file, request the file format you would like it converted to, and have the service send you an email with a link to the converted file. You don't need an account to use Zamzar's free service, but you do need to enter your email. Zamzar will convert a large variety of file formats.

Here is a solution to avoid the problem:
 * Always save your files in the old formats. When saving a file, select the File --> Save As options from the menu. Then, in the dialog box that appears, select the .doc, .ppt, or .xls option from the Format drop-down menu, as in this example:
 * And, a better solution is to set your default file format to .doc, .ppt, and .xls, so that you don't have to remember to change the format for every file. To do that, choose the Preferences menu option, and look for the Save or Files option. (The location of this option varies depending upon your version of Office.) In the Save dialog box, select the .doc, .ppt, or .xls option from the File format drop-down box, as in this example: