More about MS Office 2007 files

Just a while back, I blogged about how to open MS Office 2007 files on a Windows machine even if you don't have MS Office installed. I've just stumbled upon a website that will convert the files for you. I haven't tried it out, but it appears that Zamzar converts MS Office 2007 files as well as does many other types of conversions. This might be useful to keep in mind if you are on a different operating system, like Mac OS X.

On the importance of blogging for technical folks

My second post for the Phurnace Software blog (which is why I didn't post last night....I was working!):

On the importance of blogging for technical folks

TestLink

I just started using TestLink at work. It's a software test case management (TCM) tool, something every QA team needs, in my humble opinion. We didn't have anything in place, so I researched and chose TestLink over a few other free/low cost solutions. It's not HP Quality Center, but so far it is getting the job done. I've only been using it for a few weeks now (we're in the middle of a sprint), so I'll give an update later, and a more thorough review of the tool.

How to open MS Office 2007 files on Windows without MS Office

I am currently using OpenOffice v. 2.4 at work, which doesn't support MS Office 2007 files. Sometimes I just need to read these files, and not really edit them. E.g., I will get a .docx or a .xlsx file from a colleague or vendor. Just yesterday I couldn't open a .docx file from our outsourced vendor. MS Office 2007 support won't arrive until OpenOffice.org 3.0 comes out (it's in beta testing right now). So my quick solution was to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats and the Word Viewer. Together those allowed me to open the vendor's .docx document. Note that the Word Viewer 2003 plus SP3 update seems to work well too.