How to open and convert docx or xlsx files for FREE

So you have Microsoft Office 2003 or Offixe XP installed and for years you have been working with no problem and then you get a file that is supposed to open in Word and it can't.

The problem is your version of office does not know how to open the file made in Office 2007 or later which has a default extension .docx for Word files or .xlsx  for Excel files etc.

Office 2003 or XP uses .doc or .xls etc. extensions.

Do NOT pay money to convert files. There are web sites that convert the files for free but if you are critical about privacy this is not an option. There are a few free solutions but these are what I recommend.

• Download and install Open Office which is a suite just like Microsoft Office but it is open source software, so it is totally free, no catch to download and install, no adware, no malware, no popups. The current version 3.2 opens .docx files and allows you to then save in a variety of other formats, though not in .docx. This newly saved file can be opened by anyone with either Microsoft Office or Open Office, or any other appropriate program.
  
  I recommend Open Office as it has a smaller footprint on your computer, using less hard drive space and system resources while it is running. You can install Microsoft Office 2007 but it uses at least twice as much hard drive space and take longer to perform any task compared to Open Office on a machine more than 3 or 4 years old. Did I mention Open Office is free? It is totally legal to share a copy with your friend too. The download and install is easy and straightforward as with most other programs in windows. It also looks and feels just like the MS version. One thing to note, after you install you will want to edit the default Save As type in the options, eg. .doc for word documents, .xls for spreadsheets etc. so that you will always make files other people can open easily by default.
  
  Download Open Office HERE (Download from an http site close to you. The file size is ~150MB)

• Download the official Microsoft patch for Office 2003 or Office XP. If you install this patch without having MS office installed and try to open a .docx file, it will convert the file to .doc and let you save it. If you have MS office installed you can open and/or save .docx files as you would normally do in Word. To create a .docx, choose it in the 'Save as type' when you go to File -> Save As.
  
  This is the simpler option but still leaves you with a heavy program on your system.
  
  Get the patch from HERE. (Click the Download button on the left, it is 37 MB)