Handy online file converter

May 8th, 2007 | by Tim Wilson |

Now that Microsoft has released a new version of Office with a different default file format, we’re starting to have kids show up at school unable to open a document that they created at home. The version we have at school is now one generation behind, and with the cost of buying new licenses and the training necessary to get our staff up to speed on the new interface, it’s going to stay that way for a while.

We’ve identified a couple solutions. First, the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack will add compatibility with the new format to the older versions of Office programs on Windows. It also patches the Microsoft “Viewer” applications.

Another approach, and one that works for Macs, is to use Zamzar. Zamzar is a really cool online file conversion utility for dozens of document, image, music, and video formats. To use the site, you upload your file, select what format you’d like to have it converted to, and wait for them to email the new file to you. It really works.

  1. 3 Responses to “Handy online file converter”

  2. By Tom Turner on May 8, 2007 | Reply

    Zamzar is a great tool. Steve Dembo turned me onto using zamzar a few months back and it has come in handy on more than one occasion. The pesky admins need .pdfs to be alterable, so it’s a pretty easy convert from pdf to doc.

    Tom.
    http://tnturner.edublogs.org

  3. By Caoimhin Dubhuir on Jun 1, 2007 | Reply

    Hey Tom,

    You have a nicely formatted and informative blog; I’ve added it to my Blogroll.

    First, thanks for sharing your school’s tentative responses to dealing with Microsoft’s new version of Office. I will, no doubt, be encountering the same problems when I begin my re-certification student teaching experience in August. Your school’s short-term workarounds are now on file.

    But your post raises a bigger picture issue. Namely, is it in the best interests of the Internet-connected world to be dependent on proprietary software? A few years ago I read an article advocating everyone’s switching to HTML as their default format rather than DOC (MS Word). At the time, I remember thinking, “Come on; Word will always be with us and will always be compatible.” So much for my random musing. Upward software compatibility is as important as downward.

    In my opinion, Microsoft has flexed its muscle at an ideal time. On the one hand, it is in Microsoft’s short-term interests; their move is certainly going to help their short-term bottom line. On the other hand, Microsoft’s move is also a wake-up call to those of us not invested in Microsoft’s success. Do we want this to happen again? I don’t think so. Microsoft’s move is an impetus to champion Web 2.0—or whatever else you’d like to call it. Google and a gang of others, as most of you know, have already published freely available web-based programs which accomplish the same tasks as those accomplished by Microsoft’s expensive Office. That means that Microsoft’s short-term gain for a few can be translated into vast long-term gains for the rest of us.

  4. By Luis Secaida on Jun 20, 2007 | Reply

    Thanks for the site, works great

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