Download and reinstall the Conversion Pack again. Ran into a similar
problem with Office2003 and XP/SP3 and a redownload and reinstall fixed it.
To try to preserve my sanity I ran some tests and here's what I found:
Win XP SP 3:
Had .NET Framework 3.5 on it so I uninstalled it; it now had .NET Framework
3.0.
No other very recent Windows updates
Had Office 97 with Office 2007 Compatibility Pack on it, so I uninstalled
both of those.
Installed Office 2003 Word and Excel only, no .NET or VBA related stuff, no
Smart Tags, no other applications. Did not install any SPs.
In this state it would not open .docx or .xlsx documents.
Then I installed the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack
(FileFormatConverters.exe version 12.0.6500.5000).
Now it would open both .docx and .xlsx documents, but with these caveats:
When in one of those applications, and using the open file dialog with the
various "office file types" chosen in the dropdown, it doesn't see any
.docx or .xlsx documents the first time you try it. You can choose all
files to get the list and see the files. In Word, you can then open a .docx
file from the list. Thereafter, the Word file dialog will see the .docx
files as "office file types". However, in Excel, you cannot open an .xlsx
document from Excel no matter what. You have to find the document in
Windows Explorer and double-click it to open it.
Installing .NET Framework 3.5 did not change anything about this.
Windows 7 SP1:
A new machine with all current updates applied, and which never had any
version of MS Office installed, I installed Office 2003 (just Word and
Excel, no extra stuff as described above) with no SPs. I then installed the
same Office 2007 Compatibility Pack as above, and it opened .docx and .xlsx
files, as described above, with the same limitations.
(In Office 97 on XP, I have also seen Word or Excel throw up a "cannot
convert [document name]" or "cannot find [some converter executable]" error
message, but it will still open the .docx or .xlsx document.)
I am quite sure that I tried this with Office 2003 on Win 2000 and it
didn't work there.
So what have we learned, Kenny?
1. My memory sucks.
2. It is possible that the Compatibility Pack executable I have now is
newer than/different from the one I used when I tried this a couple years
ago. My Win XP Windows Explorer claims the file was "created" on April 6,
2012, though I am guessing that's actually when I copied it to this
machine. The copyright on the file is 2006--but that doesn't mean the
actual file isn't newer than that either.
3. The Compatibility Pack works in a decent, but not perfect, fashion. It
could have been that I decided that since, for example, I could not open an
.xlsx file from within Excel, that it didn't work at all. It's certainly
annoying.
In any case, since I only have 5 Office 2003 licenses, using the
Compatibility Pack with that version isn't going to solve my over-arching
problem. I still have to buy up Office 2010 to avoid undesirable aspects of
Office 2013 (in the near-term, I still have to support a bunch of XP
machines and 2013 won't run on XP; meanwhile, there are other undesirable
features in 2013 that I don't want to have to cope with until the last
possible minute).
Thanks, everybody, for contributing to this discussion.
Ken Dibble
www.stic-cil.org
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