Hello to other Seniors, good to know there are others in the same boat. I keep learning, but some things really perplex me! Can anybody out there help me? I don't know about this, and need your expert advice or experience, please. My problem/question: I have a friend trying to send me an excel spreadsheet with some of their family data that overlaps with my own. I am very nervous about this, having never done so. When I clicked to have loaded it, it came back that my excel ( it is 2003) is not 'compatible with what they sent as an attachment, and I need to click on the links to get a 'compatibility pack, seems like a sort of upgrade? It says this (I am doing a copy/paste to show) " Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats" . Is this something safe? Does it cost me? I see that it also is saying (copy/paste here to show:) "Users of the Microsoft Office XP and 2003 programs Word, Excel, or PowerPoint—please install all High-Priority updates from _Microsoft Update_ (http://update.microsoft.com/) before downloading the Compatibility Pack. By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the _file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007_ (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074) . The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see _Knowledge Base article 924074_ (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074) . Note: If you use Microsoft Word 2000 or Microsoft Word 2002 to read or write documents containing complex scripts, please see _http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925451_ (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925451) for information to enable Word 2007 documents to be displayed correctly in your version of Word. " Is this all safe, and won't hurt my computer? I understand ( I think) the part about clicking for the upgrades first, I think that makes sense since I have never done that before, but I could probably walk through it okay. Then I guess after that I just do the download / upgrade and walk through. I am worried........Will I lose anything in all my files of word and anything else that could be harmed? See, I have many many important files in Word documents and other pdf things that I want secure. Thanking you in advance for any help, suggestions, counsel!