I recently received an email with a file attachment that I needed to open. However, when I tried to open the file, I received an error message that the file could not be opened. The file format was tagged as a docx file and after some checking I found out this was the new file extension format that has been used beginning with Microsoft Word 2007. Unfortunately, for those of us with earlier Word versions (I have Microsoft Word for Mac 2004), docx files are unable to be opened.
One option is to go ahead and purchase a new Microsoft Office Suite. However, I've vowed to never buy any more Microsoft products. This decision dates back to a IBM Thinkpad laptop that never survived a Windows XP service pack 2 upgrade several years ago. That's another story but I went exploring for some alternative options.
There are some file conversion programs available on the web. I played around with a couple of them. Some converted the file but then asked for a fee before allowing access to the file. But I then found a better work around--a workaround that was free and easy to implement.
Google Documents is able to read and convert docx files. So I had the docx file on my desktop which would not open but could upload the file to Google Documents. When I uploaded the file, it quickly became readable in Google Documents for review and editing. Google provide multiple file save options to allow me the flexibility I needed to continue to work with this file.
It's interesting that Google, a serious competitor to Microsoft is solving Microsoft user software problems. This solution reduces the need for Microsoft software upgrades and I think will push more people to use the free web-based software that Google provides. Thanks Google for putting this helpful feature in your web-based software. It helped me out and I look forward to help with future Microsoft problems.
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