If you are using a version of MS Office earlier than the 2007 edition then you can download an update which allows you to view, edit & create files with the new extensions.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=enIf you are using open office make sure it is up to date, version 2.3 onwards opens files with the new extensions without any problems.
If all else fails the final option would be to extract the content of the docx file & view it in either in a text editor like notepad or with your browser.
Step 1: Change the file extension of your docx file to .zip (filename.docx -> filename.zip)
Step 2: Extract the contents of this zip file locally using Winzip or any other unzip utility.
Step 3: Open the “word” folder in the extracted files and you should see a file called document.xml.
Open document.xml with notepad or your browser and there you have the full text of your docx document albeit without the formatting.
If there are any images or charts, they’ll be available under a sub-folder called media.
