beatoven

Forgive me for reviving a long-dead topic, but I believe I've stumbled upon a breakthrough of sorts. I am typing this on a computer running Windows 98SE that I just patched with the 98se2Me patch. Like most people running this OS, I was discouraged by the inability to use the 2007 Compatibilty Pack with Office 97 or 2000. Just for kicks, I downloaded the Office 2007 update and followed the instructions on this thread: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/96877-microsoft-office-2007-compatibility-pack/ I unpacked the installer, deleted the version checker with Orca, and crossed my fingers. It installed with no problems and I fired up Office 97. Word works flawlessly with .DOCX files. It converts them back and forth, opens and saves them, and preserves all the formatting. I tested this by opening a copy of my resume, which I created using Office 2010. It contains all kinds of weird formatting and margins which I was sure would be wrecked by Office 97. Surprisingly it looked exactly as it should. I was able to easily edit and save the file, and have yet to encounter a single error message. Excel 97 is giving me fits for some reason, though. When I attempt to open an .XLSX file, a "Save As" dialog box pops up with an error message saying "The converter failed to save the file." This is odd, since Excel hasn't even opened yet. It pops up immediately when I click on an .XLSX file. A split second before the error messages, a box titled "Compatibility Pack for Office 97 Installer" pops up, followed by a Microsoft Excel box that says "Converting File." I can't open an .XLSX file inside Excel eithre. I get a "This file is not in a recognizable format" error. I think the success I've had so far is due to the 98se2Me updates I installed. It should also be noted this is a fresh install of Windows and Office. Since 90% of what I do is with Word, I'm happy. I'll continue to mess with Excel, but if someone else can get it working feel free to post your method! Regards, beatoven