Applies to
Microsoft Office 2000

Many organizations upgrade gradually to new programs. During the transition, users often need to exchange files between old and new versions of a program.

Office 2000 and Microsoft Office 97 have similar file formats so you don't need to install any special converters to exchange files between these versions of Office.

It's more of a challenge when exchanging files between Office 2000, Microsoft Office 95, and Microsoft Office 4.x because these versions have different file formats.

If you use Office 2000, you can open files created in Office 95 and Office 4.x without a problem. However, if you use Office 95 or Office 4.x, you need to install some additional converters before you can open files saved by Office 2000 users.

How to use the Office Converter Pack

To make the upgrade process go smoothly, the Microsoft Office Converter Pack included in the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit provides the components that users need to share files between Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, and Microsoft PowerPoint® 2000 and Office 95, Office 4.x, and other programs.

Some of the components in the Office Converter Pack have been previously available, but this is the first time they are packaged together for convenient deployment. You can consider the Office Converter Pack as the mini-mart convenience store for add-ins, converters, and filters.

Components for Office 95 and Office 4.x users

The Office Converter Pack includes several converters. The converters for opening Office 2000 and HTML files are of particular interest to Office 95 and Office 4.x users.

Converters for opening Office 2000 files

When Office 2000 users save documents and presentations, the files are saved in the 97-2000 format unless another format is specified.

If you use Microsoft Word 95, Word 6.0, PowerPoint 95, and PowerPoint 4.0, you must first install the 97-2000 converters included in the Office Converter Pack before you can open files saved in the 97-2000 format.

Converters for opening HTML files

When Office 2000 users save documents, workbooks, and presentations as Web pages, the files are converted to HTML format.

If you use Office 95 or Office 4.x, you must first install the HTML converters included in the Office Converter Pack before you can open files saved in HTML format by Office 2000 users.

Components for Office 2000 users

The Office Converter Pack includes additional text converters and graphics filters not included with Office 2000 Setup.

Text converters for Word 2000

Word 2000 users can install the following text converters:

• Borland dBASE II, III, III+, and IV
• Lotus AmiPro 3.x for Microsoft Windows®
• Microsoft FoxPro® 2.6
• Microsoft Windows Write 3.x
• Microsoft Word 3.x - 6.0 for MS-DOS®
• Microsoft Works 3.0 for Windows
• Revisable-Form-Text Document Content Architecture (RFT-DCA)
• WordPerfect 4.0 for MS-DOS
• WordStar 3.3 - 7.0 for MS-DOS and WordStar 1.0 - 2.0 for Windows

Graphics filters for Word 2000, Excel 2000, and PowerPoint 2000

Word 2000, Excel 2000, and PowerPoint 2000 users can install the following graphics filters:

• AutoCAD
• Micrografx Designer/Draw graphics filter
• Targa graphics filter

More information

To download the Office Converter Pack, visit the Microsoft Office Resource Kit Toolbox.

The Office 2000 Help system includes information about how to make a smooth transition to Office 2000. Type upgrade or new users in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard tab in the Help window.