Office 2013 In Depth

Understanding Office File Formats

The default file formats for each of the Office applications (all except for OneNote) take advantage of the open XML (eXtensible Markup Language) file standards. The file formats provide benefits in terms of file compaction, improved damage recovery, better detection of files containing macros, and better compatibility with other vendor software.

Although some backward-compatibility issues may be involved when you attempt to share a file using one of these file formats with a user who still works with an earlier version of a particular Office application, most problems have been ironed out. Users still working with earlier versions of the Office applications (including versions of Microsoft Office running in ...