I was given the opportunity to purchase Office 2007 @ a reduced price through my employer, which I did. But now I am weary of installing it. After talking to a couple of people I've been told that it does not have reverse compatability. Does that mean that I won't be able to access documents that I already have? Will people that don't have '07 be able to receive and work with documents that I create? What is the general opinion on '07? BTW I am using Windows XP here at home if that makes any difference. Thanks

AFAIK - you should have no trouble opening Word Documents, Excel spreadsheets or Powerpoint presentations saved in an earlier version.

The only thing which might cause a problem, though it's pretty remote, would be any formulae used in calculations which are no longer supported.

I've upgraded various times without any difficulty, but hopefully an expert will chip in soon.

Microsoft Publisher does not have backwards compatibility. Once you save a Publisher file in Office 2007, no previous version will be able to read it.
Most other programs in the Office suite should be okay backwards compatibility wise, the only other possible candidate for backwards compatibility could be Access.

1. Yes, you will still be able to access Word documents created with previous versions of Office when you switch over to Office 2007.

2. If you are dealing with individuals who do not have Office 2007, you have 2 choices:

a. Save your documents in Office 97-2003 format which they can read and write to

or

b. Ensure that the people to with whom you are dealing do the following:
Taken from: http://blogs.msdn.com/scaravajal/archive/2...patibility.aspx

Thank you all for your input. It is very much appreciated.