.MSO File

The mso file extension is primarily related to Microsoft Organization Chart, a tool that installs a separate application to create and edit organization charts that is provided by Microsoft since PowerPoint 95.

Up until  Microsoft Organization Chart 2.0 it was a separate program, but now is available Organization Chart Add-In for Microsoft Office.

The mso file contains an organization chart, which can be imported to any Office document as an object.

Although the the Microsoft Organization Chart is integrated to latest versions of Microsoft Office, it is not installed by default. You have to manually install it during the installation process (or add it in later via reinstall / change). You can find it under PowerPoint items.

Users can also create organization charts in Microsoft Visio without the Organization Chart Add-In installed. But these are saved in different format.

An mso file extension is used for organization charts created with Microsoft Organization Chart software tool, that was part of Microsoft Office 2000 and earlier. Newer versions of Microsoft Office can import mso files and saved to different format.

How to open:

In the past you could open *.mso file in special Microsoft Organization Chart program. Now it is integrated in MS Office apps and you can import it as OLE object.

How to convert:

You cannot actually convert *.mso file to anything else. However you can import the chart to an Office document and export or convert the whole file.