docx to doc converter

Factual Questions
1

There appear to be several docx to doc converters but has anyone used any of them that seemed to be virus-free? Maybe I am paranoid, but I hesitate to download something that has not been recommended.

2

You need the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. Direct from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3

Install it on a computer running any version of Office prior to 2007 and you’ll be able to open docx files and save them as doc files.

3

I’m sure someone can offer a better solution than mine, but I just use Open Office. The older version I have (3.2) deals with .docx extremely well and makes conversion a snap.
Another alternative is to use a site like www.zamzar.com. You just upload your file and you get an e-mail in about 10 minutes with a link to download the converted file. I use the free version and have been really happy with the results.

4

Yes, Open Office can do this easily. But if the OP already has a license for Microsoft Office, and it’s already installed on his computer, then downloading and installing Open Office seems a bit cumbersome just for the simple act of converting between formats. All he needs is the (free) compatibility pack from Microsoft created specifically for this purpose.

5

I will try the ms converter. It is actually for my wife’s computer. I don’t have and won’t use word. She is a translator, more-or-less retired and was offered and accepted a job for an old client. The same came in as a doc file, else she would have declined. She was surprised when the job came in as a dozen docx files. The client declined to convert them and she has to decide whether to decline the job.

6

I just upload them to Google Docs and read them there.

7

The ms converter works–sort of. After I installed it and loaded a docx file, I got an error message: “Cannot convert …docx file”, but then it did–perfectly as far as I could tell. So thanks.

8

The pre-2007 versions (at least semi-recent ones) can use the MS provided translator.

  1. First/best - use the MS converter which installs as part of the early versions - when it works it is seamless, when it doesn’t “work” it sometimes still works as mentioned upthread.

  2. If there are not a lot of these files, find someone who has 2007/2010 and have them do the “save as” 2003 version. Unless they are a lot of these or they are really big that shouldn’t be an issue (less than 30 seconds per file and that is allowing for slow navigation of the menus.