Office 2007 Files and Your Classroom

The top sales months for new computer purchases are October, November, and December. This year many families received their new computers on the PC side, with Microsoft VISTA and Microsoft Office 2007. Some liked the changes and some did not.

Microsoft's new operating system called "Vista" has received mixed reviews but is the only new purchase alternative unless you switch to XP after the fact and at a cost. However, once users go through the learning curve of the new system interface and updates, Vista is finally starting to be embraced by the public.

With the advent of Vista and Office 2007 we are just starting to experience their effects in the classroom as users adopt both products.

Vista Desktop:
Office 2007 Menu:

Office 2007 has undergone a pretty thorough revamp with new flexible menus and features. One major change is the file format Office 2007 now employs. This change applies to all the Office 2007 programs such as Word and Excel. An "x" is placed after the normal file extension. For example (.doc) for a Word file is now (.docx). The problem with the little "x" is the file can only be opened by Office 2007 and no other version of Microsoft Office. I have encountered many situations where teachers and students are at school and cannot print, edit or submit their work electronically as the files created with Office 2007 are incompatible with the software available at school currently. I have written instructions for Office 2007 users to take advantage of the "save as" option and save files in the old (.doc) format so you can use the software at school. Saving in the old (.doc) format can cause a loss some functionality of some of the cool new features. I also have a solution for individuals who need to do a conversions at school without any software!

Help for Teachers:
Click HERE for the TEACHER solution:


Help for Students:
Click HERE for a Link for STUDENTS to access: