How to update your Office Suite for Free

Has someone sent you a new ".docx" file that your current office suite simply will not open? Read on ...

Microsoft Office 2007 docucuments conform to a new international standard proposed by Microsoft, OpenXML . As this is the first time that Microsoft Office documents conform to a documented standard, this standard is important. You can expect that most documents will conform to this standard soon, and so you will need to be able to read and write documents in this standard.

The good news, is that most of us will not have to spend more money in order to be able to read and write OpenXML documents.

Open Office

OpenXML

Open Office is free. You can update it by downloading and installing the latest version . You need to download Open Office 3. Unfortunately, Open Office 2 does not have the ability to open OpenXML documents. Open Office 3 has the ability to read OpenXml documents, but currently, not the ability to write them.

Microsoft Truetype Core Fonts

Sometimes documents created in Microsoft Office do not look quite right in Open Office. This is normally indicates that Open Office does not have the correct fonts. If your installation of Open Office does not appear to have arial, times new roman, or courier, then it is lacking fonts. In this case, the installation of certain standard fonts are a must.

You can download these for Windows operating systems from here . Most Linux distributions make the core fonts available through the package manager, and you should select them for installation.

Microsoft Works

Unfortunately Microsoft Works, does not have the ability to OpenXML documents, and there are no upgrades to enable it to do so. Also, Microsoft Works does no have the required functionality to do all of the assignments for Foundation Computing.

Versions of Microsoft Office earlier than Office 2000.

Unfortunately versions of Microsoft Office earlier than Office 2000 do not have the ability to OpenXML documents, and there are no upgrades to enable them to do so.

Microsoft Office 2000

Microsoft still supports Office 2000, and you need to download and install the following upgrades:-

Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office 2000 is available for download here .
The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is available for download here .

Microsoft Office XP (Sometimes known as Office 2002)

Microsoft still supports Office XP, and you need to download and install the following upgrades:-

Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office XP is available for download here .
The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is available for download here .

Microsoft Office 2003

Microsoft still supports Office 2003, and you need to download and install the following upgrades:-

Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office 2003 is available for download here .
The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack is available for download here .

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 already uses OpenXML as its native format, and so there is currently no need to upgrade. Service Pack 1 is recommended, however, and you can download it here .