Message when you try to open a file that was saved in a prerelease version of the 2007 Office programs: "This file was created in a previous beta version" or "This workbook was created in an earlier beta version"

You have the original release version of the 2007 Microsoft Office programs installed. When you try to open a file that was saved in a prerelease version of Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, or Microsoft Office Word 2007, you may receive one of the following messages:

Message 1Message 2Message 3Message 4

This issue may occur because, by default, some Open XML files that were saved in the prerelease versions of the 2007 Office programs cannot be opened by the release versions of the 2007 Office programs.

The following tables summarize the messages that you may receive in the release version of the 2007 Office programs when you open a file that was saved in a prerelease version.

Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

There is no workaround that enables you to open files that were saved in a prerelease version of the 2007 Office programs that is earlier than the Beta 2 release version.

A policy is available that lets an administrator aggressively block the opening of pre-release files. When the policy is enabled, you may receive the following messages when you try to open a prerelease file in the release version of the 2007 Office programs, as summarized in the following tables.

Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

To enable the policy, follow these steps.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Exit the 2007 Office programs.
2. Click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
3. Right-click Administrative Templates, and then click Add/Remove Templates.
4. Click Add.
5. Locate and select one or more of the following Administrative Templates, and then click Open.
   • Excel12.adm
   • Ppt12.adm
   • Word12.adm
6. Click Close.
7. Expand Administrative Templates.
8. Click Microsoft Office Word 2007.
9. Expand Block file formats.
10. Click Open.
11. Double-click the Blocks opening of prerelease versions of file formats new to Word 2007 policy.
12. Click Enabled, and then click OK.
13. Repeat steps 8 to 12 for the Excel 2007 policy and for the PowerPoint 2007 policy.
14. Restart the 2007 Office programs.

For more information about why you may be unable to open or to save a Microsoft Excel worksheet, a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, or a Microsoft Word file in the 2007 Office programs, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: