Microsoft have done it again: I got an email on Tuesday and couldn't open the attachment - it had a .docx extension. I got the info via other means, and went home and thought about it. Then read the attached in the paper on Thursday - and iit all became clear.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/askjack/2008/01/why_cant_people_read_my_office.html (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/askjack/2008/01/why_cant_people_read_my_office.html)
So be aware that ifyou have office 2007 and send Word attachments, people who haven't got 2007 will have difficulty opening them.
If you google .docx there are lots of sites giving advice on how to convert the documents, but I remember the same thing happening - I skipped Office 97 and went from 95 to 2000. (In those days Office 95 was on 25 floppy discs! Now we haven't a floppy drive in the house).
If you look through the microsoft update/add on site I am pretty sure there is an add on to convert the document from one to another.
According to Microsoft you need to install the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats".
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx)
Why doesn't this surprise me? It was only a matter of time before this famous bloatware became incompatible with even itself.
Thanks for posting this - you reminded me of a plea for help from my (new) girlfriend which I had completely forgotten about.
She was after a copy of Office XP so she could work at home on her laptop. I sourced a copy of Office 2007 for her, stuck in on her machine, and assumed all would be well. In a stunning show of post-sales support (or rather lack of), I just assumed her inability to open files at work created at home with word 2007 was some kind of 'user error'.
I have now emailed her the various bits of info listed above, and will undoubtedly earn myself some brownie points!
Either that or you'll get the sack... :)