Replying to DOCX and XLSX help. Please

We just had a study group for an exam i have tomorrow and the kid taking the notes had the 2007 vista office. He sent the files out and they are DOCX and XLSX. I can not open them. I know the DOCX has a converter but you lose the formatting. But the XLSX does not have a converter. Can anyone help? Could i possibly send you the files if you have the new Office and then you save them in the old code? Any help is appreciated.