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the files are not going to be any more forward- or backwards-compatible than any previous version was.


Forwards compatibility just means making something stagnate. I don't think the people making the first versions of Word ever envisioned 2 mb sound clips or 10 mb movie clips being embedded in a document, nor had the capabilities of supporting such a system in any type of standard method. The Word doc format had to change to support it, or never add such features.

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but that won't help someone trying to open an Office 2013 file in Office 2007. They'll still run into the same problem, mark my words.


Will Office 2013 open a 2007 document? More then likely yes, just as existing Word 95 files open right up in Office 2007. And it will likely be able to save back to a format at least compatible back several versions.

And actually, taking a peek at the File Format Converter, MS did go one step further this time. Download and install that on Office XP/2003, and you can then open and save to 2007's file format directly in the Office programs.

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I believe that MS does all this on purpose, as yet another planned-obsolsesence to make people upgrade the office suite.


So with the above free download, the only reason IT would have to upgrade my Office install to 2007 is to use the new interface. This doesn't get pushed via Microsoft Update for some odd reason, so I think that should change. If it was pushed via MU, the professor in this situation wouldn't have had to do anything if his system is kept up to date.

So yes, MS doesn't have a great track record here. But looking at what they did for 2007 I think they did decently. What would you do differently when faced with a 20 year old format with tons of stuff cobbled on, and people screaming for better cross product compatibility?