My company is using WSS 3.0 to host a document library storing (mostly) Office 2007 format documents. Company PCs have either Office 2003 (with the 2007 compatibility pack) or Office 2007 installed.
We didn't have any problem getting docx to work, but xlsx documents don't open properly when we use the SharePoint document edit options. The file opens in excel, but displays unformatted mess (close to the notepad representation). The actual files are fine, downloading the xlsx file (using the send to -> download option) allows the file to be opened. It is only when we use SharePoints 'Edit in Microsoft Excel' that we get an issue.
I think that the issue is excel (2003) trying to open the xlsx file as if it were and xls file, and being unable to represent the zipped contents. Has anyone seen this issue before?
EDIT: I've noticed that when the document is opened with explorer, it actually opens through the Microsoft open XML coverter. Clearly, SharePoint isn't using it, is there a fix that works round this?
UPDATE: I have done a bit more research, as added in the comment below this issue replicates across all machines on our network which use office 2003 and XLSX files from SharePoint. I have confirmed that using excel to open xlsx files in explorer (without the converter) results in the same issue as when they are opened from SharePoint. I think i need a way to tell SharePoint/IE (whatever actually handles the office interaction, URLMON/HLink?) that the proper file assosciation for XLSX isn't excel.exe.