The Save As dialog box is displayed when you use Windows Explorer to open an Office file after you install the Compatibility Pack

Symptoms

You install the Microsoft Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. When you use Windows Explorer to open a Microsoft Office file, such as a Microsoft Word document, a Microsoft Excel worksheet, or a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, the document does not open. Instead, the Save As dialog box is displayed.

Cause

This issue occurs because Microsoft Office file types may lose the association that they previously had with other programs when you install the Compatibility Pack. This issue occurs when you try to open files that use any of the following file types:

• Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)
  

• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation (*.ppt)
  

• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 97-2003 Template (*.pot)
  

• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 97-2003 Show (*.pps)
  

• Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls)
  

• Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Template (*.xlt)
  

• Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Add-In (*.xla)
  

• Word 2007 Document (*.docx)
  

• Word 2007 Macro-enabled Document (*.docm)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Presentation (*.pptx)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Macro-enabled Presentation (*.pptm)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Template (*.potx)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Macro-enabled Template (*.potm)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Show (*.ppsx)
  

• PowerPoint 2007 Macro-enabled Show (*.ppsm)
  

• Excel 2007 Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
  

• Excel 2007 Workbook (*.xlsx)
  

• Excel 2007 Macro-enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)
  

• Excel 2007 Template (*.xltx)
  

• Excel 2007 Macro-enabled Template (*.xltm)
  

• Excel 2007 Add-in (*.xlam)
  

Workaround

To work around this problem, re-associate the file types with the programs that you want to use to open the files. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the file that you want to open in a particular program, and then click Open With.
   

2. Click Select a program from a list, and then click OK.
   

3. Click the program that you want to associate with the file.
   

4. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box.
   

5. Click OK.
   

More Information

After you install the Compatibility Pack, you can save files that use file types from earlier versions of Microsoft Office as files that use 2007 Office file types. You can also save files that use 2007 Office file types as files that use file types from earlier versions of Office. To save a file to a different file type, right-click the file, and then click Save as.

Note 2007 Office file types are also known as Office XML Open Format file types.

The following table describes the file types that a specific file can be saved as after you install the Compatibility Pack.

For more information about how to obtain and to use the Compatibility Pack, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

924074 How to use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office programs