Many organizations upgrade gradually to new programs.
During the transition, users often need to exchange files between old and new versions of a program. Microsoft Office 2000 and Office 97 have similar file formats so you don't need to install any special converters to exchange files between these versions of Office. It's more of a challenge when exchanging files between Office 2000, Office 95, and Office 4.x because these versions have different file formats. If you use Office 2000, you can open files created in Office 95 and Office 4.x without a problem. However, if you use Office 95 or Office 4.x, you need to install some additional converters before you can open files saved by Office 2000 users.