How to save documents in Word 2003 format

Many people know that saving Word documents in Office 2007 means that they cannot be read by previous versions of Office, as the file extension for an Office 2007 document is DOCX, not DOC, and it’s bad manners to expect a recipient to install extra software to read it.

This can be a serious problem when attaching Office documents to an email or attempting to transfer them to a PC with older Office applications.

If you do not want to force the recipient to install the compatibility pack or Open Office, it is possible to set Word 2007 to always use the Word 97-2003 format.

Click on the Office Button in Word 2007, go to Word options and click on the Save link on the left. Click on the ‘Save files in this format’ dropdown menu and select ‘Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

Confirm the change by clicking on OK at the bottom of the page. You can change back to the Word 2007 setting using the same procedure or select Word 2007 in the Save as Type box. This option is also available for Powerpoint and Excel Applications.

William Rae

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