Any Luck with Office 2007 to 2003 Converter?

[link470]

In our school we have 290 or so Windows XP machines on a Windows server 2003 Domain. Many students are beginning to get machines with Vista and Office 2007 at home, and so I've installed the Office 2007 Compatibility pack on the machines [since we use Office 2003 here]. Many MANY office 2007 documents can't be opened. I'd say a good 99% of them students come to me saying "word says it can't open the file" even after the compatibility pack is installed. Anyone had any luck?

 

Thanks!

[iatkinson]

We're still informing the kids to save work as .rtf if they want to open it at school. For one off jobs I've got the compatability pack on my machine and haven't had any problem converting files thus far.

[triggmiester]

I used to have to convert the files on my machine and then save it in their user area. But we rolled out the Compatability pack two weeks ago with no problems. We are running XP machines abs 2003 servers.

[plock]

I used to have to convert the files on my machine and then save it in their user area. But we rolled out the Compatability pack two weeks ago with no problems. We are running XP machines abs 2003 servers.

 

Likewise no issues here thus far.

[rush_tech]

Just tell them to save it as 2003 format job done. After all it does warn then on saving in 2007

[localzuk]

I'm taking the same approach as I do for MS Works documents - tell them to save the file as a word 2003 file. It isn't our responsibility to allow access to every file format going...

 

Also, anyone spot the irony that the office 2007 formats are supposed to be open, yet there is all this trouble using them in anything buy office 2007? Becta's compatibility complaint is right on the mark here

[Kyle]

Deployed via GPO and have had no problems.

[apeo]

Deployed for a while now with no reported problems.

[JamesC]

Again I have deployed this, tested it and had no problems whatsoever

[TronXP]

Deployed 2007 compatibility using Zenworks, has worked fine on all but 4 machines.

 

(Windows XP workstations, Novell Netware 6.5 servers + Zenworks 7)

[rhyds]

Deployed via GPO and have had no problems.

 

How did you package it to deploy via GPO? I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure it out.

[Psymon]

Deployed via GPO and have had no problems.

 

How did you package it to deploy via GPO? I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure it out.

 

We have a global machine policy covering all machines except the servers, you can get an .MSI version of office 2007 compatiablility pack and roll it out as a software item the same as office, publisher, shadowcopy etc...

[pallen]

Have installed it, but never been able to open up a kids work from 2007. I advise them to save as 2003 at least. Also informed teaching staff of this so they can advise the kids when they are doing work at home.

[cookie_monster]

@ localzuk, OOXML isn't an open standard yet as it hasn't been approved but the specs are available and i'm sure very soon Open Office will fully support it.

[ArchersIT]

One thing to possibly check - the 2007 compatability pack says that Office 2003 has to be up to date before it is installed, so I suspect that a patch (or service pack) may be required somewhere along the line.

 

Ours were at SP2 with some patches done (not all) when we deployed the comaptability pack and I have not had any reported problems since.

 

Jonathan

[rhyds]

*Smacks head on table*

 

I should have looked closer, thanks psymon

[Psymon]

*Smacks head on table*

 

I should have looked closer, thanks psymon

 

not a problem.

[localzuk]

@ localzuk, OOXML isn't an open standard yet as it hasn't been approved but the specs are available and i'm sure very soon Open Office will fully support it.

 

The point is that Microsoft *claim* it is open. Nothing needs to be ratified for this, it just needs to have the spec's completely open.

[link470]

That's a good call on the updates being installed, I never knew that. But sure enough, all computers have Office SP3 and all updates installed from Microsoft Update [so all office updates included]. I'm in the middle of building new images as well, and the last thing I installed was the 2007 and Works converters. So we'll see if these images work! Hoping to get them rolled out beginning of christmas holidays. Hasn't been done in a long time here.

[FN-GM]

Funnily enough I installed it on an image today it seems to work fine. The bigger problem is when they use Microsoft Works.

 

Z

[leeshellard]

Deployed it like this and been working fine for us.

 

http://mkeadle.org/?p=113

[bizzel]

Also working fine here. We used RM's package and we've had no problems so far.