Originally Posted by
Jofm5
.....
So why the change to .docx when existing docs were fine - well what Microsoft has done is they have generated an Open Document standard which is based upon XML. A .docx file is a compressed XML document, if you use winzip or similar you can uncompress this document file and have access to the XML inside - the XML Schema is published so essentially anyone can read/write docx files without having Word altogether - it also makes pulling document contents into applications easier.
Incidently the backward compatibility is within Office 2007 - you can save to any of the previous native formats and edit in those formats for compatibility with users of previous Word versions.
... but then there's the dozy factor "Whaddyer mean you can't read it? It's a word document isn't it?... Well, I'm using Word. Nobody told me they'd changed it"
As for 'anyone can read/write docx files...' No they can't - not without plugins. And not many people will bother. At present, nearly all the world
can read .doc's - force majeure has seen to that. and 'you can save to any of the previous formats...' Yes, of course, but the dozies referred to above prob. will never remember...
hey-ho! just another aggravation.
Ned Ludd