Office 2007 Compatibility Pack and .XLSX Issues

Question

I've installed the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack and Service Pack 2 on client machines. In one case the user reports he can open .docx files successfully but is unable to open .xlsx files. Has anyone else seen the same issue? If you have can you trace it back to a certain issue? Any input would be appreciated. FYI: the system is XP Pro SP3 running Office XP.

Answer 1

Is Office XP updated to the latest Service Pack ? Microsoft KB Reports:

Issues that occur if Office is not fully updated

The following are issues that may occur if the computer was not updated to be compatible with the 2007 Microsoft Office documents, and you try to open, save, or edit files in the new file format.

When you use the Open dialog box or when you use a drag-and-drop operation to move the file into the version of Excel that you are using, you receive the following error message: The file is not in a recognizable format. When you double-click the file in Windows Explorer, or you double-click the file as an attachment in e-mail, you receive the following error message: Windows cannot open this file.

FWIW I was also facing the same problem, and in my case I asked the Author of the file to save it on Office 97-2003 format and sent it across to me.