As Microsoft Office 2007 gains in acceptance and popularity, more and more people are having trouble opening Word documents in their versions of Microsoft Word.  This is because Office 2007 uses a new document format, with the extension .docx, as opposed to .doc as many MS Word users are accustomed to seeing. Users of Word 2007 can save document in the .doc format by choosig to do so manually when they save a document, but a typical user does not know this. More importantly, most users of Word 2007 do not realize that a lot of people that they may send that document to are not able to open it, as many people, including most large corporations, are still using Word 2003.

For this reason, as well as the many additional features and new functionality included in Microsoft Office 2007, it is time for you to consider upgrading your computers to Office 2007.  Academic Superstore has a special promotion going on right now that will give you Office 2007 Professional, which includes everything you likely need (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) for only $99.  Technically, you must be a student, parent, or educator to get this price, although you do not have to send in proof of being a parent or anything like that. 

You can get this deal on Office 2007 by clicking here.

There are other ways to get around this as well, as Microsoft did release a Compatibility pack that allows Word 2003 users to be able to open these documents, for free, but since it is 2009 now, really it is time to upgrade anyway and this is a pretty good deal on some essential software.   You could also make the switch to the free and open source Open Office software, but kids in school will still be learning the Microsoft suite of tools, and so I would not recommend providing them with something different that will confuse them .  If you are out of school and want to learn a new software suite, by all means give it a shot.  It is pretty good once you get used to it, and of course, it is free.   But for $99, getting Office 2007 is a pretty good deal as well.