Once in a while, believe it or not, I’ve called up for help in providing something to open a certain format. Even some of the more common formats like PDF, I’ve been called up for. And although it seems hard to believe these days, a common thing that I’ve been asked about is how to open the Microsoft Office DOCX format, due to the fact that even with the release of Microsoft Office 2010 rolling out around the corner, most people I have to help haven’t even updated to 2007, because of the confusing ribbon interface. Then when they receive a DOCX file, they haven’t heard of online converters or anything of the like, because unlike what I consider to be most of the techs that read Raymond.cc, they simply don’t Google for help: they reach for the phone instead and call me.
If you’ve ever had a time opening this new format from Microsoft Office and don’t have it or trust the several online converters, this will be an article for you then. If you’re new to computers, you might also want to archive this post due to the fact that they are slowly becoming a standard in the world, taking over for DOC.
My first option for you, if you’re looking for an full office suite for free that will open this insane format, OpenOffice.org (also known as OOo) is the first and last choice I offer everyone. It is open source, free of charge to anyone, including corporations, and implements 95% of what Microsoft Office does for free, plus some options that are exclusive to OpenOffice.org, such as cross-platform compatibility and the ability to make a PDF file without needing a PDF printer, as well as having a portable version available for anyone to use. All you need is Java installed on the machine you are using OOo on.
DevVicky Word 2010 is a freeware application that can also open DOCX formats as well. It leaves a much smaller footprint on the system compared to OpenOffice.org, and is much lighter when compared to MS Office as well. It does also suffer from a Ribbon interface, so if you’re not a Ribbon fan like myself, it won’t be an option to consider. This was recommended on our forum by one of our moderators, Safeguy. It can also save to DOCX if you so choose… but personally, I still don’t see much of a point to changing over to the new format, personally.
Zoho Office / Microsoft Office Web Apps / GoogleDocs
Your final option lies with online services such as Zoho, Google Docs, or the Office Web Apps, all of which are able to open DOCX online, on their servers for you, saving you the hassle of having to install any applications at all or having to carry around a USB stick with an application on it.
If you have to deal with DOCX files, there’s no real need for Microsoft Office anymore, and the new standards are getting adapted as OpenOffice.org moves along, though at present the web applications support them fine. In case you would rather not use any of these routes though, there is a fourth and fifth ways of opening a DOCX file without any of these options. You can open a DOCX inside Wordpad, so long as you’re using Windows 7, or you can uncompress it with your favourite uncompressing software, like WinZip, WinRAR, ALZip, etc, and open up the file in the Word folder it makes.
So the next time you have to open a DOCX, don’t worry much about trying to convert it because you’re using an old version: use one of the many ways I’ve listed here and save yourself the time and the hassle of downloading Microsoft Office just to open that one file.
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