What are the new document formats used in Microsoft Office 2007?

With the introduction of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft is including new formats for three of the main Office programs:

1. Microsoft Word - A word processing program used for typing documents and letters.
2. Microsoft Excel - A spreadsheet program used for storing data in rows and colums and performing calculations on the data.
3. Microsoft PowerPoint - A presentation program used for creating professional presentations and slide shows.

New Format

In Office 2007 (also known as Office 12), these three programs will use a new file format based on Open XML. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents will be saved in an XML format rather than binary. This will make it possible for damaged files to be recovered, since the way XML stores data allows the file to be viewed even if part of the document is corrupted. For example, if an Open XML Word Document contains a damaged chart, the chart may not show up correctly, but the rest of the file should look fine. If the file was saved as a binary document, it would most likely not even open.

Smaller Size

Besides incorporating a new, more compatible format, the new Office documents will take up less space than previous formats. This is because the new format incorporates ZIP compression, which can reduce file size up to 75%. This will save hard drive space, but will be even more beneficial when sending documents over the Internet, via e-mail or other data transfer methods.

Compatibility

Since XML is a standardized format, Open XML documents should be recognized by any software that supports the Open XML format. While previous versions of Office programs will not recognize files saved in the new format, Microsoft will release updates for Office 2000, XP, and 2003, that will allow users to open, edit, and save documents in the Open XML format.

File Extensions

The new Open XML Office formats will include new file extensions to distinguish them from the previous file types. The extensions of the new and old file types are listed below:

New Extension	Old Extension	File Type
Microsoft Word
.DOCX	.DOC	Word Document
.DOCM	n/a	Macro-enabled Word Document
.DOTX	.DOT	Word Document Template
.DOTM	n/a	Macro-enabled Word Document Template
Microsoft Excel
.XLSX	.XLS	Excel Spreadsheet
.XLSM	n/a	Macro-enabled Excel Spreadsheet
.XLTX	.XLT	Excel Spreadsheet Template
.XLTM	n/a	Macro-enabled Excel Spreadsheet Template
.XLSB	n/a	Excel Binary Workbook
.XLAM	.XLA	Excel Add-in
Microsoft PowerPoint
.PPTX	.PPT	PowerPoint Presentation
.PPTM	n/a	Macro-enabled PowerPoint Presentation
.PPSX	.PPS	PowerPoint Slide Show
.PPSM	n/a	Macro-enabled PowerPoint Slide Show
.POTX	.POT	PowerPoint Presentation Template
.POTM	n/a	Macro-enabled PowerPoint Presentation Template
.PPAM	.PPA	PowerPoint Add-in

The other Office formats, such as Access, Visio, and Entourage (Mac) files, are expected to remain the same.