I just had an email discussion with a client who had sent me a file with a .docx extension. My response to him was that .docx was a proprietary Microsoft format and I would prefer it as Open Document Format or even as a .doc so I could read it. His response was that Microsoft was the standard format and I needed to get software that could read it.
It's always difficult having these discussions with clients but I managed to gently walk him through saving the file as a .doc and resending it to me.
So I'm curious about the rest of the world. Has .docx succeeded in becoming the new standard or does the rest of the Lotus world insist on receiving .doc as a file format?
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We're getting the occasional attachment in DocX format. Luckily I preloaded our Office 2003 clients with the FREE MS filter.
I'm half-seriously considering putting in a firewall rule for them though... :-)
BTW: If you get stuck, Google Docs happily imports and converts DocX - and all you need to do it is a FREE gmail account (which you should have already)
Also the Domino and Notes 8.5 KeyView filter reads the DOCX file format.
You Customer is actually wrong about the Microsoft Offfice .docx being a standard file format.
The actual standard is OOXML, but Microsoft (according to the newspaper article below) is not due to support OOXML until Office 14 is released.
http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=32228
Ironically, Microsoft has announced that will support the ODF file format before it supports OOXML and has also announced joining the OASIS ODF Working Group. According to Jason Matusow, the senior director of interoperability at Microsoft, ODF is currently the defacto standard.
It is funny here in Czech Republic as some new system for communication with goverment just started and .docx isn't listed as allowable file format. It is considered kind of a bug, but it'll take time to change.
Otherwise seeing .docx quite often.
Dealing with large company clients Office 2007 formats are common. The free MS File Format Converter adds the import filter for Office versions back to 2000. I've never seen a real translation problem; but watch for missing fonts.
Symphony 1.3 opens them as well.
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