If you try to open a file created in Office 2007 in an older version of Microsoft Office, chances are you won't succeed. This is because Microsoft has created a whole new set of file types for Word, Access, Excel and Powerpoint. At first glance, you might be hard pushed to see the difference, but look closely and you'll see Office 2007 documents have an 'x' at the end of their file extension:

Word documents end with docx instead of .doc, Excel documents now end in xlsx, and so on. The technical reasons behind this switch aren't of concern here, but if you're trying to share a file with someone else, or trying to open such a file in Office 2000, XP or 2003, these new file formats can cause problems. Thankfully they can be used - and we'll explain how.

1. OFFICE 2000, XP AND 2003 users should download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack from the Microsoft website. The full website address for this download is very long, so we've created a link to it using a redirect service called Tinyurl. So, launch your web browser, type into the Address or Location bar, and press Enter. When our site appears, click the link near the bottom to be redirected to the page of Microsoft's website. Now click the Download button and save the file to the Windows Desktop it's 27.5MB, so one for broadband users only.

Once downloaded, double-click FileFormatConverters.exe and follow the instructions to install it. After installing, you'll be able to use Word 2007, Excel 2007 and Powerpoint 200 documents in earlier version of Office. You can open, edit and save documents in these formats - choose File, followed by Save As and pick the appropriate option from the Save as type dropdown list.

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2. OFFICE 2007 USERS CAN also make it easier for other people to open documents in older versions of Office by saving them' in a compatible fonnat. Click the Office logo button and choose Save As to bring up a sub-menu with the necessary options. Select Word 97-2003 Document in Word, Excel 97-2003 Workbook in Excel or Powerpoint 97-2003 Presentation in Powerpoint. Access users should select Access 2000 Database for maximum compatibility, or Access 2002-2003 Database if the recipient has a later version of Office installed, to ensure more features in the original database are preserved.

3. OFFICE 2007 USERS WHO regularly need to share documents with older versions of Office should change the settings to automatically save in the older format. Click the Office button, followed by the Options button. Access users should then choose either Access 2000 or Access 2002-3 under Default File Fomlat; Word, Excel and Powerpoint users should first select Save from the left-hand menu, then click the 'Save files in this format' drop down button and choose 'Word 97-2003 document (*.doc)' in Word,'ExceI97-2003 Workbook' in Excel or 'PowerPoint Presentation 97-2003' in Powerpoint before clicking OK