Latest Microsoft Office viewers: Do I have or need them?

Topic

New Reply

I have downloaded viewers for MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but I have not yet installed them because I am not sure they are the latest viewers, capable of viewing documents created by the latest MS Office programs, which I think are dated 2013.

I am using Win7sp1 on a new Dell 64-bit laptop. My “Office” program is not Microsoft, but instead is WordPerfect Office x6. But from time to time someone sends me a Microsoft Office Document: usually MS Word, but sometimes MS Excel, and occasionally MS PowerPoint. WordPerfect x6 can open and even edit these Word documents and probably Excel documents, but I would rather have an independent Microsoft viewer look at them first, before anything gets edited.

So after doing a Google search for “Latest Microsoft Office Viewers” (without the quotes) I came up with several Microsoft viewer websites, but the one that I thought was most likely to provide viewers for the latest Office documents was
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx

That site’s items 3, 4, and 5 gave me a link to each:
MS Word Viewer – Latest? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=4
MS Excel Viewer – Latest? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=10
MS PowerPoint Viewer – Latest? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=13

(The word “Latest?” of course is my reminder that I’m not sure I have the latest viewers.)

My first question is: Did I really download the latest viewers, capable of reading MS 2013 documents?

My second question is: The locations from which I downloaded the viewers also urged me to download and install Compatibility Packs. Am I correct in thinking that those are useful only if someone sends me a document (be it Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) that is in a pre-2013 version, or even is in an ancient version that Microsoft no longer supports?

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, or help.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

P.S. An alternative to the Microsoft website http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx above was http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979860, but after reading it I was not confident that its links would get me the latest viewers.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Moved post to General productivity where you are more likely to get help.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

I wouldn’t worry about it, a viewer is either going to work with a given format or not, not alter the document. Compatibility pack is for earlier versions of MS Office so they can open and edit more recently created Office document formats like docx and xlsx, etc.

Reply | Quote

My first question is: Did I really download the latest viewers, capable of reading MS 2013 documents?

Yes, but you also need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats

“The Office Compatibility Pack can also be used together with Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files that are saved in the new file formats.”
How to open new file formats in earlier versions of Microsoft Office

My second question is: The locations from which I downloaded the viewers also urged me to download and install Compatibility Packs. Am I correct in thinking that those are useful only if someone sends me a document (be it Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) that is in a pre-2013 version, or even is in an ancient version that Microsoft no longer supports?

No; Office Compatibility packs allow newer formats to be opened with older programs, not older formats to be opened with newer programs.

P.S. An alternative to the Microsoft website http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx above was http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979860, but after reading it I was not confident that its links would get me the latest viewers.

The links from that page are to the same download pages you found by searching.

Bruce

Reply | Quote

Thanks to jwitalka Super Moderator (Post #2) for moving my initial post and hence this thread to General productivity, and to F.U.N. downtown Bronze Lounger (Post #3) and BruceR WS Lounge VIP (Post #4) for confirming that I did download the latest viewers (which would view documents created by MS Office 2013).

But when I read Bronze Lounger’s post that said “Compatibility pack is for earlier versions of MS Office so they can open and edit more recently created Office document formats like docx and xlsx, etc.,” I concluded that I didn’t need Compatibility Packs since my new laptop does not have any Microsoft Office software installed, and therefore my new laptop does not have any “earlier versions of MS Office” installed.

Therefore, when I read BruceR’s statement that I “also need to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats” I wondered why he thought I needed to do that. I wondered even more strongly when I read BruceR’s later statement that “Compatibility packs allow newer formats to be opened with older programs, not older formats to be opened with newer programs,” because my new laptop doesn’t have any MS Office programs installed, and therefore my new laptop doesn’t have any older MS programs installed.
To me, BruceR’s second clause in his “Compatibility Packs allow newer formats to be opened with older programs, not older formats to be opened with newer programs” means that means that Compatibility Packs are not needed to open documents created with older (pre-2013) MS Office programs.
And that implies that the latest (2013) viewers DO open older formats as well as the latest formats.
If that is true, then with viewers but without Compatibility Packs, I should be able to read not only MS Office documents created by the latest (2013) MS Office software, but also MS Office documents created by previous MS Office software.

In short, given that Bronze Lounger and BruceR know much more about MS Office software than I do, I remain somewhat confused about whether and why my special situation (no older MS Office programs or viewers installed) needs to have Compatibility Packs.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

The Compatibility Packs are only used by Microsoft Office applications. They allow earlier versions of Office to open and edit later Office File formats. If you don’t have any version of Microsoft Office, you don’t need a Compatibility Pack. The viewers should be sufficient.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats
To help ensure that you can open files in these new formats, Microsoft has developed a Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack after you install the Word Viewer, you can view documents that are saved in the following new document formats:
•Word Document (.docx)
•Word Macro-Enabled Document (.docm)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4

Word Viewer v11 was released on 26 September 2007. Combined with Office Compatibility Pack for Word, it supports Office Open XML document format found in Word 2007 and later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word_Viewer

Bruce

Reply | Quote

Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats
To help ensure that you can open files in these new formats, Microsoft has developed a Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack after you install the Word Viewer, you can view documents that are saved in the following new document formats:
•Word Document (.docx)
•Word Macro-Enabled Document (.docm)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4

Word Viewer v11 was released on 26 September 2007. Combined with Office Compatibility Pack for Word, it supports Office Open XML document format found in Word 2007 and later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word_Viewer

Bruce

After reading the links carefully, I agree with you. The text also implies that you don’t need an Office program to install the Compatibility Pack but you need both the viewer and the Compatibility Pack to read the latest Office formats. This is different from the last time I used the viewers.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

BruceR:

From you and Wikipedia, I understand that even the latest MS Word Viewer benefits from a MS Word Compatibility Pack.

What I don’t know is whether the latest MS Excel Viewer and the latest MS PowerPoint also benefit from their Compatibility Packs, when the user (me) doesn’t have any earlier Excel or PowerPoint viewers (or full Excel or PowerPoint creating software) installed on his computer.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

BruceR:

From you and Wikipedia, I understand that even the latest MS Word Viewer benefits from a MS Word Compatibility Pack.

That’s what I understand at the moment as well. I downloaded one from your link and the properties were version 12 and copyright 2006, so unless you find a 2007 or later version, it’s based on the 2003 version which of course is not compatible with the file format additions from 2007 forward.

As far as I can tell Office Starter Word and Excel are not time limited but are feature limited and you get a little ad-border so Microsoft can tell you how much better it would be to subscribe to Office 365.

Reply | Quote

Uff, if that’s true then that means the viewers have basically not been updated in a decade so you may get the same conversion process if there’s any really advanced formatting attributes to the document.
I wonder if Office Word and Excel (no PowerPoint) Starter 2010 Free would function better as viewers then?

Reply | Quote

Bronze Lounger:

Do I guess correctly that “Office Word and Excel (no PowerPoint) Starter 2010 Free” are free “teaser” programs that introduce potential users to full versions of Word and Excel? If so, do they nevertheless have long lives, or is there a time limit requiring a user to either uninstall or to buy a full version?

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

Bronze Lounger:

Do I guess correctly that “Office Word and Excel (no PowerPoint) Starter 2010 Free” are free “teaser” programs that introduce potential users to full versions of Word and Excel? If so, do they nevertheless have long lives, or is there a time limit requiring a user to either uninstall or to buy a full version?

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Office Starter came preloaded on some computers and was not time limited. However its not availale for as a separate download as far as I know.

Have you tried opening a docx file in WordPerfect X6? According to http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2012/july_august/product_review_wordperfect_office_x6.html :

WordPerfect X6 can not only read the Microsoft Word 2007 DOCX file format, but also the OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) ODF and OOXML formats. Unlike earlier versions, it now can save to DOCX, too, allowing distribution of the current Microsoft Word format. Importing and conversion of DOC and DOCX files also continue to improve with every version. Files that in WordPerfect X4 or X5 would generate an error code open without a hitch in X6.

Jerry

Reply | Quote

I thank you for this info. I have been putting off upgrading from WordPerfect 12, but this gives me the incentive to finally upgrade.

Reply | Quote

Readera:

I hope you are upgrading from WordPerfect 12 to WordPerfect x6 (sixteen!), and not to Microsoft Office. If so, on the Corel website, checkout the alternative versions. Depending on what WordPerfect DVD you purchase (I am lucky enough to be an academician, so I got a bargain price of about $100), your x6 DVD can have a variety of special features.

Somewhere on the Corel website — at the moment, I can’t find it — there should be a table comparing different features available in different WordPerfect Office versions: Standard, Professional, Legal, Academic, and maybe one or two more. If you can’t find the table, it’s worth an email or a phone call to Corel.

To get additional information, contact WordPerfect Universe (http://www.wpuniverse.com/).

I am pretty sure that all WordPerfect versions, after you have written a document, will let you save it as a PDF file (as I think WP12 does). For additional PDF features (e.g. editing PDF files you get from elsewhere), I recommend PDF-XChange Viewer, from Tracker Software. It’s not very expensive. A Google search for PDF-XChange will turn up Tracker Software very quickly.

If you have a 64-bit computer, WordPerfect X6 will install fine, but it won’t have the speed advantages of Windows 7 64-bit. So if you have a 64-bit computer, you might want to wait until Corel puts out a specific 64-bit version. (I have no idea when that might be.) Personally, I didn’t wait, because I needed some WordPerfect version for a new 64-bit laptop.

If you do a search on WordPerfect Universe forums for Folsom, you will find that the optional WordPerfect scanner software, Nuance PaperPort 12SE did not work well for me (I uninstalled it), although previously I was a fan of earlier PaperPort versions. (It probably is a separate option on the installation DVD.)

As you can see in WordPerfect Universe, I still have a lot of settings changes I want to install in X6. But other issues having nothing to do with WordPerfect have interfered.

Best wishes! Cordially, R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

Thanks to everyone above. When my time permits, and I have installed the “latest” viewers (but without installing any Compatibility Packs), I will try viewing some docx Word documents. I happened to get one today, but I didn’t have time to view it until tomorrow.

It sure would be nice if Microsoft hired some technicians who would know how to write unambiguous statements about what MS software does, and does not do.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

The OP knows this, he just wanted to get a gander at the file before any possible WP X6 file conversion took place.
Starter 2010 is indeed available for download, at least it was when I got my copy about a month ago. It has an odd file name, just a module that uses the install on demand method…the file name is setupconsumerc2rolw.exe. Major geeks has a download link, indicates it’s shareware but I’ve installed it several times with no indication that it is shareware, only free with sidebar ads.

Reply | Quote

This is very embarrassing, but I must confess that in the initial post that opened this thread, in the first Microsoft link that I posted (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx), I didn’t read carefully enough (unless Microsoft is following this thread, read my initial post, and changed the content of my first MS link, which I doubt). The next three links in my initial post that I posted here should have included the following texts (emphasis supplied):

03 Word Viewer
View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don’t have Word installed. This download is a replacement for Word Viewer 2003 and all previous Word Viewer versions.

04 PowerPoint Viewer
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer lets you view full-featured presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions.

05 Excel Viewer
Open, view, and print Excel workbooks, even if you don’t have Excel installed. This download is a replacement for Excel Viewer 97 and all previous Excel Viewer versions.

From that — and from all of the very much appreciated comments here — I have concluded that to view the latest stuff, Compatibility Packs are needed for Word Viewer and Excel Viewer but not for PowerPoint Viewer.

My guess is that the differences in the need for Compatibility Packs probably are the result of different MS Office teams working on different projects.

[Digression: On the other hand, today, when I returned to the first link in my initial post in this thread (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/office.aspx), and selected and downloaded the Compatibility Pack, its title was Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. (The actual file name was FileFormatConverters.exe.)
[On the MS website from which I downloaded the MS viewers, the release dates were: Word Viewer 26 Sept 2007; Excel Viewer 14 Jan 2008; PowerPoint Viewer 25 Oct 2011, and Compatibility Packs 01 Jun 2010. How a compatibility Pack released in 2010 could have updated PowerPoint Viewer released in 2011 is a mystery to me. Also, when I installed the Word Viewer released in 2007, its Classic Start Menu entry was MS Office Word 2003.]

My additional guess is that the Word and Excel Viewer Compatibility Packs likely do allow Word Viewer and Excel Viewer to read MS Office 2013 (or whatever the latest version is) Word and Excel documents — but that’s a guess.

My apologies for consuming the time of everyone who posted on this thread.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote

The viewer will work with a given format, not alter the document. Compatibility pack is for earlier versions of MS Office so they can open and edit more recently created Office document formats like docx and xlsx, etc.

Reply | Quote

Ryaan:

I haven’t used any viewers lately on my new computer, but on my ancient WinXPsp3 Dell C840 laptop, on several occasions when I tried to read a MS Word document, I got a message that the Word Viewer would have to make some changes in order to display the document. (I think the changes showed up in the viewer, but that they didn’t alter the original document. But I am not sure about that.) I tried upgrading my Word viewer on the C840, and thought I had done so, but I still got that message.

R.N. (Roger) Folsom

Reply | Quote