How to Open/View Excel 2007 files without Excel 2007 Software
Categories: Tech Tips
If you ever get into a situation whereby you need to open/view an Excel 2007 file (.xlsx) but the computer you are using does not have Excel 2007 installed then these tricks could come in handy. This was particularly very helpful to me when I was checking my email from my friends computer and I received an Excel 2007 file as attachment that I wanted to view immediately but my friend’s computer didn’t have Office 2007 installed.
Option 1
If the computer you are using has Excel 2003 installed then you are in luck. You can just download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack which automatically converts the excel 2007 file and let you open, edit and save workbooks using Excel 2003.
Option 2
What if you don’t have Excel 2003 installed on the computer? Well you can download and install the Excel viewer from Microsoft which lets you open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don’t have Excel installed
Option 3
You can use Open Office to view the excel files. OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
The same trick can be applied to Microsoft Word 2007 files too. Do you know of any other ways to do this?
#1 by kamal on May 21, 2009 - 8:27 am
It help a lot.
Thanks
#2 by Steve on August 12, 2009 - 7:52 am
The problem that I have is with Excel 2007 pivot tables created from analysis services cube data. Although you can view them via the compatibility option, if you want /need to do drill down then I have found it impossible to do so even when the original spreadsheet was saved as a 97-2003 document!
#3 by Marty on August 12, 2009 - 9:58 am
I just purchased an Apple computer, how can I intall excel?
#4 by admin on August 12, 2009 - 5:48 pm
@Marty, You need to get a Mac version of Excel or MS office.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Excel2008/default.mspx
#5 by Computer Maintenance on December 22, 2009 - 11:17 am
Super cool trick!
I’ve been looking for exactly this. I have MS Office 07 at office and 03 on my laptop. So, backward comparability was always an issue!
Thanks for the tips
Cheers
–Nav–
Computer Maintenance´s last blog ..Uninstall Unwanted Programs
#6 by Roofing Materials on December 29, 2009 - 11:55 pm
Now that’s a neat trick. Some of my not so computer literate friends are still using Office 2003 and have trouble opening files which is in Office 2007 format. This is the ideal trick for them. Thanks
#7 by Ayush Kumar on July 3, 2010 - 12:40 am
Aww my clients used to send us .docx file (office 2007) while we are using office 2003 and we faced this problem last year. I got a plugin which automatically make it readable and seems it is similar to Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.
Ayush Kumar´s last blog ..Google Doodle Football Photos
#8 by Mystery Shopper Vacancies on July 3, 2010 - 10:50 pm
Perfect! I’ve been searching online for hours trying to find a solution for this for an urgent deadline (tomorrow – argh!). Thanks for sharing the tip, appreciated.
Mystery Shopper Vacancies´s last blog ..Tips for improving customer service