It's ironic really.  Tomorrow the ISO council are likely to vote OOXML to be fast-tracked to a standard.  There's been good coverage on Groklaw and by Zeth Green. One of the problems with technical decisions like this is that they really don't get the average person in the street interested.  It's only when problems occur that they realise there's an issue - and they expect their IT guy/friend/consultant to be able to fix it for them.

Well, today I had a call from my mate - saying that he'd sent a company his CV, but they'd written back to request that he send it from Microsoft Word.  He did.  He was using Office 2007.  I smelt the problem right away.

He was using OOXML, and they weren't.  At this juncture, one has two options.

a) Try and get the organisation you're sending the document to to download the "OOXML Compatibility Pack."   Your chances of success are small.

b) Save the file in a different format.  RECOMMENDED!

Here's how:  See the list at the bottom of the page for recommended (and not-recommended) defaults.

To change default file save options in Office Excel 2007

  1. Double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007, double-click Excel Options, and click Save.

  2. In the right pane, right-click Save Excel files as, and select Properties.

  3. In Save files in this format, select Enabled.

  4. In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.

  5. Click Apply to save the settings.

To change default file save options in Office PowerPoint 2007

  1. Double-click Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, double-click PowerPoint Options, and click Save.

  2. In the right pane, right-click Save files in this format, and select Properties.

  3. In Save files in this format, select Enabled.

  4. In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.

  5. Click Apply to save the settings.

To change default file save options in Office Word 2007

  1. Double-click Microsoft Office Word 2007, double-click Word Options, and click Save.

  2. In the right pane, right-click Save files in this format, and select Properties.

  3. In Save files in this format, select Enabled.

  4. In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.

  5. Click Apply to save the settings.

The possible value for the default file save format include:

For Excel:

For PowerPoint:

For Word:

Of course, if you want to make sure you don't come across this problem in the future - choose an open and free format - and ask your friends/colleagues/clients to do so too.  There's already a documented format standard in *.odf.

Download your cross-platform Free Office Suite (completely legally) from OpenOffice.org