Say you got tons of Excel sheets, PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on your computer that were written in Office XP or 2003. How do you convert all these files to the new Office 2007 format.
One option is that you open all of them in the associated Office program and manually save them in the newer (docx, xlsx or pptx) format. Or follow these steps and convert all documents in one go.
Step 1: Download Migration Manager kit and extract it into a new folder - say: c:\office.
Step 2: Download and install the Office Pack - this step is required even if you have Microsoft Office 2007 already installed on your computer.
Step 3: Assuming that you extracted the Office Manager files in c:\office directory, go c:\office\tools, open ofc.ini using notepad and add the following line.
fldr=c:\users\labnol\documents
This refers to the folder location that holds your office files. I am pointing this to my Documents folder but it could be different on your machine.
Step 4: Open command prompt and go to c:\office\tools. There you’ll see a utility called ofc.exe - this is the Office File Converter that will convert all old Office files to the new 2007 Office document format in bulk. Run.
Immediately all old Office files in that folder (and sub-folders) will get converted to the new format and are saved in a new folder.
This utility works with Word (doc to docx), Access databases, PowerPoint (ppt to pptx), Visio diagrams, Excel (xls to xlsx) and Microsoft Project files. The conversion may however fail for password protected documents.
Also see: Use IE as docx Reader
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/bulk-convert-office-documents-in-2007-format/4291/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
I am confused as to why you would need to convert everything from 2003 to 2007 files. Office is backward compatible.
Written by Raj on 08.21.08
Yes, Microsoft Office is backwards compatible but the new docx formats are quite different from the old .doc format.
May be this method would help if you are working in an organization where they have standardized the format to docx or xlsx.
Also docx are essentially zipped xml files while .doc is a binary format.
Written by Amit Agarwal on 08.21.08
It’s also a good way to save disk space since the files get zipped (as Amit mentioned above).
Written by Arthur on 08.23.08
WTF? You need Office 2007 to convert to docx? Isn’t that format supposed to be open, portable and “easy” due to its xml-nature? Wake me when there’s a standalone converter.
Written by Lobaloba on 08.23.08
Well, Why would one require to convert any .doc to .docx? I guess most of the users look for .docx to .doc converter. Because Office 2007 supports both formats, but the previous versions dont.
Written by Milan Chheda on 08.24.08
For Excel files, does it always convert to .xlsx? Is there a way of making them convert to .xlsm?
I haven’t tried it yet since i’m not at the office right now.
Written by Harimau on 08.24.08
Is there a Mac equivalent?
Written by Eric Stephens on 08.24.08
too bad i only found out about this after i installed office2007 when i couldn’t open office2003 files in office2007….=(
Written by nzard on 08.24.08
Good tip. I just converted a few files. It was easy and painless.
Written by Ellie on 08.24.08
is there a way to do the reverse…ie..batch convert 2007 files to 2003..??
Written by pcnerd on 08.24.08
Do you think this migration manager can convert very old ppt files (e.g PPT 4, 95, 97, 98, 2000)?? to the new 2007 format?? or at least to 2003 maybe??
Written by Jared on 08.26.08
@Harimau: Although it mentions only XLSM -> XLS and other variants, there is a paragraph on <a href=”http://www.softinterface.com/Convert-XLS/Features/Convert-XLSM-To-XLS.htm”>this page</a> labelled “Converting To XLSM file from a different file type”.
Hopefully, it’s what you’re looking for. Please let us know of your success or lack thereof! Good Luck!
Written by Sparx on 08.27.08
Of course, one of the disadvantages of doing this will be an increase in file size, no doubt…ASCII every time for me ;-)
Written by David Bradley on 08.29.08
why the hell anyone or any org except MS and associates would do that??
…..everyone is complaining abt the new formats…eu..germany…
Written by haider_up32 on 08.30.08