How to save a word 2007 document to be compatible with Word 97-2003

When I first started using Microsoft Word 2007 I had no idea that the files were not compatible with earlier versions of Word. It was not until I had sent a document created using Word 2007 in an email and received complaints from recipients not being able to open the file. At first I thought there was something wrong, because I had seen no mention of incompatible files on the internet or the packaging Office 2007 came in. Finally I realized that the file extensions were different. The old Word 97-2003 files were saved as .doc and the new Word 2007 are saved as .docx.

I had just presumed that the programs would be compatible because all earlier upgrades had been. However they were not compatible and Microsoft word 97-2003 could not open a file with the extension .docx because it did not exist when these programs were created.

Luckily Word 2007 includes a feature that lets you save a document to be compatible with Word 97-2003.

How to save a document to be combatable with Word 97-2003?

If you want to save a document to be compatible to open in word 97-2003 you cannot simply automatically save the document because it will save as a .docx. Therefore you cannot click on the disk icon at the top to save your document.

Go to the at the top left corner.
Choose Save As. Another menu will appear.
Choose Word 97-2003 Document from the list.
Choose where to save your file.
After the file has been saved as a .doc you can now just press save instead of save as. You can also press on the save symbol (a floppy disk) to automatically save the file now.

save word 2007 as word 97-2003

Is there any way to open a Word 2003 document in Word 2007?

Yes you can but you must download a compatibility pack from Microsoft. This will enable you to open Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and more in your Office 2003 program. You can also download the free Open office program. It will open .docx files already. See more details in the freeware section.

Go to the Microsoft website to download Word viewer

And you will also need Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Notes on saving a Word 2007 document to be compatible with a Word 97-2003:

If you open a word 97-2003 document in word 2007 and then save it, it will save in the same format as the original file. However if you want to change the file to .docx then you must use save as to save the document.
Just remember that the majority of user still have Word 2003 on their computers so it is very handy to be able to make a word 2007 document compatible for this.

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About the Author

Mitz wrote this article and others for tips4pc.com Browse for more articles that are written in an easy to understand way. Also see our very popular Video Tutorials page. Watching a video is a very easy way to learn about computers.

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