Microsoft introduced a brand new default file format for Office 2007.  The new format, docx, is incompatible not only with applications produced by other vendors, but it’s also useless for users of Office/Word 2003.  What does this mean to the average user?  Nothing less than the inability to click “save” in Word 2007, and then access the file in previous Office releases.  Because there are currently a lot more users of Office 2003 than for Office 2007, it might be advisable to change the default format to someething more compatible with older versions.

Why the new file format?  Microsoft explains that it was necessary to allow for all the new embedded features available in Word 2007.  That’s well and fine, except that users of both versions of Office can’t easily work on the same documents without taking extra steps each time it is saved.  By following the simple steps given below, you’ll be able to change the default file format to the more compatible Word 2003 doc format, thus eliminating the problem until such time as everyone is using the new software application.

Follow these simple steps:
1. Start MS Word 2007
2. Click the “Office” button (upper left of  the screen), then click “Word Options”
3. Click on “Save” in the left panel
4. Change the “save files in this format” from “Word Document (*.docx)” to “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)“
5. Click “OK”

Now, on those occasions when you want to save those nifty new features into your document, you can click “Save As” instead of “Save”.  All of the rest of time, to save a normal document in a compatible format, you can simply click “Save”.

Article written by MyComputerAid.com

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Set Excel to auto save in 2003 format