Do you frequently send Word 2007 documents to people who have older versions of Word? In this tutorial, learn how you can save your Word 2007 documents as an older version of Word by default so that you no longer have to worry about compatibility issues.
Microsoft Word 2007 Document Format
Microsoft Word 2007 documents are saved with a ".docx" file extension. This file extension is different from previous versions of Word where a ".doc" file extension was used. Although Word 2007's file format is different, you can still open any document created in previous versions of Word. The only catch is that Word 2007 opens older documents in Compatibility Mode and will display the words 'Compatibility Mode' in the document title. While in compatibility mode, some features in Word 2007 are disabled, but if you will be sharing these documents with people who have older versions of Word, you should leave compatibility mode on. On the other hand, if you want to convert the older document into a Word 2007 document, just click the Microsoft Office button and choose Convert. This action can also decrease the size of the document.
Although Word 2007 can easily open up older versions of Word documents, previous versions of Word need some help in opening up Word 2007 documents. Anyone with an older verion of Word will need to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 File Formats in order to open up a Word 2007 document.
The compatibility pack can be downloaded for free from Microsoft.com, but if you frequently share documents with users who do not have Word 2007, and do not have the compatibility pack installed, this can cause a lot of frustration and unnecessary delay. Therefore, if you want to have all of your Word 2007 documents automatically saved as an earlier version of Word with a ".doc" file extension, just follow these steps.
Save Word 2007 Documents as Older Version by Default
1. Click on the Microsoft Office Button.
2. Click the Word Options button on the bottom of the window.
3. When the Word Options window opens, click Save in the left pane.
4. In the 'Save files in this format' section, click the drop-down arrow and choose Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).
Saving Word 2007 Documents to Older Version on an As-Needed Basis
If you don't want to change Word 2007's default file type to ".doc", you can instead just change the file type each time you save a document. To do this, just click the Microsoft Office Button, choose Save As and choose Word 97-2003 Document. This will change the file type just for the document that you are currently saving. You'll just have to remember to do this with each document that you want saved as an earlier version of Word (".doc").
Be Aware!
When you change a Word 2007 document to an earlier version of Word (".docx" to ".doc"), you will lose some of the new features available in Word 2007. So keep this in mind when making this change. You'll know the feature is disabled when you hover your mouse over a command that is exclusive to Word 2007 and see a tooltip explaining why the command is disabled.
Customizing Word 2007 Default Settings
In this Word 2007 series, learn how to easily change Word 2007's default settings for font, line spacing, margin settings, and Save To location.