Editing a 'doc.x' with Word 2003

[jimhaz2402]

Problem: I'm on the board of a HOA. A couple of the members send out 'doc.x' documents, and I need to edit them with my comments/deletions, etc. When I attempt it, a little box tells me that I can 'read only'. I have and use Office 2003. I'm assuming that 'doc.x' is a Word 2010 document. A fellow member suggested that I find a 'enable edit' button in order for me to edit. Your help will be appreciated. jim

[jimhaz2402]

A lot of great ideas and suggestions to mull over. Thanks much. jim

[strollin]

Another way to edit those Word docs would be to use MS OneDrive. It's free and can create and edit the newer Word doc formats. If you set up a shared folder on OneDrive, all the members of your HOA could access the docs on-line and there would be no need to send the files to each other via email.

[tenbear]

Here is another vote for Libre Office.

[1492]

Microsoft's compatibility pack may be a better option if you need to open and edit .docx documents. LibreOffice does a great job of opening .docx documents, but can cause formatting issues when the edited .docx is opened in newer versions of Microsoft Office. Though they continues to improve their conversion filters, LibreOffice's .docx is still not perfect by any means.

[JamesBr]

Compatiblity pack will allow you to open, you will have to save it in old format which if the document used any formatting features not availible on 2003 (usually not) will not be saved. I never had a problem with that, but eventually upgraded to 2010 through a work discount.

[strollin]

Compatibility Pack for Office 2003

[JBinOR]

Bluegrass Ranger wrote:
Microsoft provided the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Office 2003 to access the .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx file formats that were standard with Office 2007 and newer. I believe the download is still available even though support for Office 2003 ended earlier this month. Try Googling "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack download". There should be a link there. If you can download and install it there won't be anymore problems with the ...x format files.

x2. I had to do this too at a previous job.

[2oldman]

Do you mean docx?

[BluegrassRanger]

Microsoft provided the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Office 2003 to access the .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx file formats that were standard with Office 2007 and newer. I believe the download is still available even though support for Office 2003 ended earlier this month. Try Googling "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack download". There should be a link there. If you can download and install it there won't be anymore problems with the ...x format files.

[TurnThePage]

Or ask the other users to "save as" the older doc format instead of the newer docx format. It's really quite simple.

[Campfire_Time]

Its not possible to open/edit .docx with Office 2003. Do what HappyKayakers said, download LibreOffice (its free!) and never pay Microsoft for MS Office again.

[HappyKayakers]

download libre office or open office and set either of them to always open docx files.