Read newer file formats with Office97

[pointertovoid]

Hello everybody!

I have several Office97 on varied computers (from P1 mmx 200MHz with 128MB Edo to 2GHz P4) and I'm not planning to upgrade, since newer Office editions are too slow to my taste (they take over 1s to start even on recent machines) and don't bring features I feel useful.

But then, the initial installation of Office97 can't read recent Office file formats - I don't need to write them.

I know filters exist for that. I believe to have read that filters for Office2000 also work on Office97. Can somebody tell me which one I shall use (file name or web address if possible)? That would save me a good deal of time, as information about Office97 is evaporating quickly from Microsoft's site.

Thank you!

[spacesurfer]

You can try to Office 2007 Compatibility Pack but it seems the oldest office supported is 2000. But try it and see if it works.

[jaclaz]

There are "self-standing" Office Viewers:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/download...0449811033.aspx

For the new, IMHO "stupid" 2007 formats, you will need BOTH the Excel 2003 Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

AND the 2007 Compatibility pack:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

Point is that they are probably BIGGER than the entire Office97.....

Check how I solved the problem for Word :

http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3378

Please note how the good guys at MS:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925180/en-us

managed to somehow remove the ability to actually "open" a file through the viewer if not by file association.

Note You cannot click Open on the File menu to open an Excel 2007 file in the Excel 2003 Viewer.

If the problem is only occasional, using an online converter may be handy, here is one:

http://www.zamzar.com/

A possible alternative is of course OpenOffice.org:

http://www.openoffice.org/

besides the "original", the portable version:

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable

might suit your needs, as it should be "slimmed down"

jaclaz

[pointertovoid]

Thank you friends!

Found also the "Converter pack for Office 2003" here

http://www.microsoft.com/office/orkarchive/2003ddl.htm

which also works for o97-2k-Xp (whose converter packs have been retired) as stated there

http://office.microsoft.com/fr-fr/download...0226201036.aspx

it includes text import filters for Word 97 and above, so any Office 97-2000-Xp-2003 should read text from all these versions.

This OCONVPCK.EXE v11.0.0.0 seems to be independent from the language.

Now for the 2007 (= xml) formats... Import filters are here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

and are recommended for Office 2000sp3, 2002sp3, 2003sp1+ which doesn't tell about Office 97

Note that these 2007 filters weigh 27MB each and DO depend on the language, and they have a Service Pack 1 here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...ec-0d68693ca564

which also weighs 26MB and DOES depend on the language, so take 53MB for each language.

Mamma mia! DOCX2RTF can indeed be a better solution for 2003 formats.

As for Open Office: open and free software certainly is sympathetic. But I regret Open Office is sooooo slow to start - that's why I have o97. Even worse, recent versions of Open Office do the same dirty trick as Adobe Pdf Reader: they preload some modules in RAM when Windows starts, so the user believes Windows is slow and Open Office is fast.

Edited January 25, 2009 by pointertovoid