How to Open MS Office Word 2007 .docx File Without MS Office 2007

Microsoft’s most recent Windows version of the Microsoft Office System or Microsoft’s productivity suite is the Microsoft Office 2007. It was made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007.  In this Office 2007 System, Microsoft decided to change the file extensions in which the old .DOC file format has now been replaced by .DOCX file format or .DOCM (Office Open XML) format.

With this, problem occur if you have an older version of Word 2000, XP/2002 or 2003 as it can’t be opened directly.What if someone emailed you with a file attachment of .docx and you only have Word 2000, XP/2002 or 2003?

Below are the ways on How to Open MS Word 2007 .docx File Without MS Office 2007 or without MS Office System:

1.  To open Microsoft Office Word 2007 .docx or .docm files with you existing Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2002, or Word 2000 and if you have an internet connection, you need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system. By  doing this, you can now open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word.

2.  Or, buy and install an upgrade your Office Application, if you have enough cash to spend.

3.  What If you do not have Word? These files can be a pain to open. What if you only have Open Office and internet connection? This is easy and free. The current version of Open Office will not properly open these files.  But worry no more, the good folks at Google have a quick, easy and best of all useful method for us non Microsoft Office users to open and view Word 2007 .docx files by using Google Gmail and Google Docs to open it and even save the whole document to the previous version (or even other format).

Using Google Gmail Account:

1. You need a Google Gmail account. If you don’t have one, go to www.gmail.com and sign up. It is free and easy to open an account.
2. Email and attach all of your Office 2007 .docx. files to your Gmail address.
3. Click on “View as HTML”, which is located near the attachment in your email. This will convert the Word 2007 file into HTML, which can be viewed in Internet Explorer or Firefox. The formatting will be kept intact, so you will be able to read the document without any problems. The images will not be kept though.

Using Google Docs:

1. If you already have a Gmail or any Google accounts, you can use it to sign-in to your Google Docs account. If you don’t have one yet, just sign up.
2. After signing-in to Google Docs, click Upload located from the top bar menu.
3. Then Browse and select the file that you want to view then click Upload button.
4. It will now be opened immediately.
5. If you want to save the file to a previous or older version file format, go to the File Menu -> Download file as -> Word, then download the file to your PC.

So how’s your experience opening a .DOCX file format without Word 2007 or without Ms Office? I hope this helps.

If you have other ways on how to open .docx file other than the above mentioned, don’t hesitate to leave a comment here.