opening files from 2000-2007on vista

I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to buy
a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with heiroglyphics
and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
new to this new laptop.

thank you so much
Lisa

"LisaB" <> wrote in message
news:6326678A-470C-4C3E-B097-...
> I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.
>
> thank you so much
> Lisa
>

If you have documents made with "Word" or "Excel" and want to view them and
edit them
you will of course have to install "Word" and "Excel" on your new machine.
The issue you have has *nothing* to do with Vista.

There are some free alternatives however...
you may want to try Open Office

"LisaB" <> wrote:

>I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
> buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
> heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.

Download Word Viewer and Excel Viewer 2007 editions from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/S...displaylang=en

Charlie42

"Charlie42" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "LisaB" <> wrote:
>
>>I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
>> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
>> buy
>> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to
>> "open
>> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
>> heiroglyphics
>> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista
>> and
>> new to this new laptop.
>
> Download Word Viewer and Excel Viewer 2007 editions from:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/S...displaylang=en
>


Charlie: It's hard to tell from the OP, but I think she doesn't have Word or
Office installed on her computer at all.
Hence the problems.

If you are using an older version of Microsoft Office and need to exchange
files with users of Office 2007, you can install the Office Compatibility
Pack which will enable you share and exchange files in the Office 2007 XML
formats.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...3-c6bb74cd1466
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"LisaB" <> wrote in message
news:6326678A-470C-4C3E-B097-...
>I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
> buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
> heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.
>
> thank you so much
> Lisa
>

If you don't have Office, download OpenOffice
(free) from OpenOffice.org. It can handle all
Office files prior to Office 2007.

If the problem is that you're receiving the new
type of Office file from others, ask them to save
the file in an older format before sending it to you.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has built a fortune on
exactly that problem: Most Office users are not
very technically oriented and don't realize that others
may not be able to open the files they produce. In turn,
the recipients of those files often feel embarassed
into buying a bloated, overpriced office suite that
they don't need.


> I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.
>
> thank you so much
> Lisa
>

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:03:01 -0800, LisaB wrote:

> I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.
>
> thank you so much
> Lisa

Those are not the only options. MS operating systems do not generally come
with MS Office unless the particular vendor chooses to include it -
generally at a premium.

Another choice would be to install OpenOffice.org - for free. It will
probably meet your needs. The other main option, as you have guessed, is
to purchase MS Office.

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:03:01 -0800, LisaB
<> wrote:

> I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to buy
> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with heiroglyphics
> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
> new to this new laptop.


Your question is very hard to understand, but let me ask several
questions and point out several things:

1. Do I correctly understand that you are receiving Word 2007 and
Excel 2007 files as E-mail attachments? These would have extensions
(the last characters at the end of the file name, after the dot) of
..docx and .xlsx.

2. Do you have *any* version of Microsoft Office (Word and Excel)
installed?

3. There is no such thing as "Vista Office." You are probably
referring to Microsoft Office 2007, but that can run on both Windows
XP and Vista.

4. You can't open Word or Excel files in either Wordpad or Adobe
Reader. They are both unsuitable for these files, and you get garbage
if you try--what you call "heiroglyphics and wingdings."

5. If you have been sent .docx and .xlsx files, and have pre-2007
versions of Word and Excel, you are not the one to "save the document
to the old format"; it's the person who created the files who would
need to do that. You could ask the sender to use Save as, and save
them as .doc and .xls files (the old formats) before sending them to
you.

Alternatively, you could install the free patches available from
Microsoft (search for them on the Microsoft web site); that would
permit you to open these files in your older versions.

6. If you don't have any versions of Word and Excel installed, you can
download free viewers for these from Microsoft's web site. Be sure to
get the 2007 version. These viewers will permit you to view the files
you've been sent, but not to modify them or create others.

7. One final point: I should also caution you that opening attachments
like this is very risky. They can contain macro viruses. You often see
advice not to open attachments from people you don't know. I think
that that's one of the most dangerous pieces of advice you see around,
because it implies that it's safe to do the opposite--open attachments
from friends and relatives. But many viruses spread by sending
themselves to everyone in the infected party's address book, so
attachments received from friends are perhaps the *most* risky to
open.

Even if the attachment legitimately comes from a friend, it can
contain a virus. I'm not suggesting that a friend is likely to send
you a virus on purpose, but if the friend is infected without
realizing it, any attachment he sends you is likely to also be
infected.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:35:17 -0500, mayayana wrote:

> If you don't have Office, download OpenOffice
> (free) from OpenOffice.org. It can handle all
> Office files prior to Office 2007.

Latest version will import office 2007 documents as well.


>
> If the problem is that you're receiving the new
> type of Office file from others, ask them to save
> the file in an older format before sending it to you.
>
> Unfortunately, Microsoft has built a fortune on
> exactly that problem: Most Office users are not
> very technically oriented and don't realize that others
> may not be able to open the files they produce. In turn,
> the recipients of those files often feel embarassed
> into buying a bloated, overpriced office suite that
> they don't need.
>
>
>> I have read some of the threads and options, someone said to save the
>> document to the old format but I do not have that option. Am I suppose to
> buy
>> a Vista Office to get the word and excel? The only options I have to "open
>> with" are...Wordpad or Adobe, when I try either, they open with
> heiroglyphics
>> and wingdings..can anyone lead me in the right direction? new to vista and
>> new to this new laptop.
>>
>> thank you so much
>> Lisa
>>

"DP" <> skrev i melding
news:eNCQsz%...

> Charlie: It's hard to tell from the OP, but I think she doesn't have Word
> or Office installed on her computer at all.

Probably not. But she didn't seem to keen on buying MS Office, so I
suggested the Viewers. At least they let you read the documents for free.

On the other hand, a word processor and a spreadsheet app makes a computer a
lot more useful... ;-)

Charlie42