File formats of Office 2007

Office Open XML

Microsoft Office uses a new file format, called Office Open XML, as the default file format. Word documents (without macro extensions) are now saved using a .docx extension rather than the traditional .doc extension. Word 2007 can also save documents in the old format which is compatible with previous versions of Word. In addition, Microsoft has made available a free add-on known as the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack" that lets Office 2000-2003 editions open, edit, and save documents created under the new 2007 format.

Office Open XML is based on XML and uses the ZIP file container. According to Microsoft, documents created in this format are up to 75% smaller than the same documents saved with previous Microsoft Office file formats, owing to data compression.[18] Microsoft Office Excel and Microsoft Office PowerPoint also use the new OOXML file formats. Word files containing macros are saved with the extension .docm.

PDF

Microsoft had initially announced that it will support exporting to Portable Document Format (PDF) in Office 2007. However, due to legal objections from Adobe Systems, Office 2007 does not have PDF support out of the box, but offers it rather as a separate free download

XPS

Office 2007 documents can also be exported as XPS documents; via another free plug-in that is also a separate download.

Open Document

Microsoft backs an open-source effort to support Open Document in Office 2007, as well as earlier versions (up to Office 2000), through a converter add-in for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and also a command-line utility.[21] As of 2008, the project supports conversion between ODF and Office Open XML file formats for all three applications.

User assistance system

In Microsoft Office 2007, the Office Assistants have been completely removed because of the much-improved help system. One feature of the new help system is the extensive use of Super Tooltips which explains in about one paragraph what each function performs. Some of them also use diagrams or pictures. These appear and disappear like normal tooltips, and replace normal tooltips in many areas. The Help content also directly integrates searching and viewing Office Online articles.