Can you view the documents created in Word and Excel 2007 on Office XP Standard, and vice versa

Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2007 Office System) uses a new XML based file formats and extensions for new documents, workbooks, spreadsheets or presentations that been created by Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. These new file formats (in .docx, .xclx and .pptx extensions) are not backward-compatible, meaning older version of Office suites such as Office 2003, Office XP and Office 2000 cannot open and read the XML files. Also, by default Office 2007 will save the document, workbook or presentation as new XML file format, which cannot be immediately opened or viewed or edited by users with earlier version of Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

To solve the compatibility issues of new XML based Office files between various version of Office 2007, 2003 and 2002 (XP), Microsoft has released Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, which when installed on the computers of users using Microsoft Office 2003 or Office XP (2002), will allow them to open, edit and save documents in the new 2007 XML formats. Please install all High-Priority updates from Microsoft Update before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

Please visit this link to download Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

Another solution to allow a file created by Office 2007 to instantly available and readable or editable across all editions of Office suites is to save the file in an earlier Office format (97-2003) manually. To do so, you will need to manually select “File Save As” option (cannot just simply click on Save button, which will still save as new XML format), and then select the file type and format as “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) format in the dialog box prompted.

To change default file save options in Office Word 2007, please perform the following steps if you could request your regional office to do so:

1. Double-click Microsoft Office Word 2007, double-click Word Options, and click Save.

2. In the right pane, right-click Save files in this format, and select Properties.

3. In Save files in this format, select Enabled.

4. In the drop-down box, select "Word 97-2003 document (.doc)" file format.

5. Click Apply to save the settings.