Office 2007 will have new File Formats!

Office 2007 is due to be released sometimes on 2007. Office 2007 will have two major changes to the office file format. For the first time Microsoft will have file extensions with more than 3 characters, but more importantly it will move from the well know .doc, .xls and .ppt file extensions for the popular Office documents.


Office 2007 will have a new, XML-based file format for Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. The New file formats will be the default file formats for Office 2007 but they will also be backward compatible to Microsoft Office 2000 using Office 2007 Compatibility Mode.

Here are the new file formats

Word 2007 Supported File Formats

• Word Document (.docx) - Default format


• Word Macro-enabled Document (.docm)


• Word Template (.dotx)


• Word Macro-enabled Document Template (.dotm)

Excel 2007 Supported File Formats

• Excel Workbook (.xlsx) - Default format


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook (.xlsm)


• Excel Template (.xltx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook Template (.xltm)


• Excel Binary Workbook (.xlsb)


• Excel Add-in (.xlam)

PowerPoint 2007 Supported File Formats

• PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx) - Default format


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation (.pptm)


• PowerPoint Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Template (.potx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation Template (.potm)


• PowerPoint Add-in (.ppam)

Not all file formats will be backward compatible only the following formats will be backward compatible down to Office 2000.

• Word Document (.docx)


• Word Macro-enabled Document (.docm)


• Excel Workbook (.xlsx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Workbook (.xlsm)


• Excel Template (.xltx)


• Excel Macro-enabled Template (.xltm)


• Excel binary Workbook (.xlsb)


• Excel Add-in (.xlam)


• PowerPoint Presentation (.pptx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation (.pptm)


• PowerPoint Slide Show (.ppsx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Slide Show (.ppsm)


• PowerPoint Template (.potx)


• PowerPoint Macro-enabled Presentation Template (.potm)

Office 2007 will also support export to PDF (ver 1.5 which is compatible with Acrobat version 6) and XPS . XPS will support rights management for secure document managements, PDF export will not support rights management.