Within the department I work, we are increasingly experiencing more and more complications with the new Microsoft Office .docx format introduced with version 2007.
We still work with Office 2003 and the docx file format is not integrated with our own document management platform, so you are not able to edit and manipulate such objects without clumsy manual interventions. Subsequent releases will address this, but that means a global upgrade to LiveLink which obviously is not something performed overnight.
This conflict was inevitable as more people migrate to Office 2007 or 2010 and use the new format by default who interact with us.
We have the file conversion tool by Microsoft but this comes with so many caveats and warnings that clearly this is not a perfect solution.
External customers are asking for help with the new file types where documents are provided by other sources we do not control. Clearly a public sector organisation cannot recommend solutions to individuals - it is their call which is naturally not a helpful position.
I hope that this new file format - heralded as more open, is worth the pain and investment required.
Where we do control matters, we issue papers and responses in PDF format so we have greater confidence that the recipient will be able to access and view the file in the way it was intended.
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