Make Word 2007 Documents Compatible with Word 97-2003

MS Word 2007 is the most preferred text editor among home users and professionals as well. Everyone who uses MS Word 2007 must know how easy it is to create, edit, and format various types of documents in it. However, there is a compatibility issue with Word 2007 i.e. the documents created in it cannot be opened with the MS Word’s versions lower than it i.e. Word 97-2003. The file extension in Word 2007 is .docx while in versions from Word 97-2003 documents are saved with .doc extension. Due to the difference in file’s extension, Word 97-2003 versions cannot open the document created in Word 2007 and displays compatibility errors. In this article, you know saving Word 2007 document in .doc format.

Saving a Single Document in Word 97-2003 Compatible Format: Execute the following steps to save a Word 2007 document in .doc format:

1. When you are ready to save a document, click the Word 2007 button at top-right corner.

2. Select the Save As option and then Select the Word 97-2003 Document option.

The Save As dialog box appears.

3. Select location to save the document.

4. Type a desired name for the document.

5. Click the Save button.

The document will be saved at the specified location in .doc format i.e. in Word 97-2003 format.

Configure Word 2007 to Automatically Save All Documents in Word 97-2003 Compatible Format: Apart from saving a single document in .doc format, you can configure Word 2007 to automatically save all documents in .doc format. Configuring Word 2007 is beneficial for those who need to share Word 2007 documents with the users who do not use Word 2007. You can easily configure Word 2007 to automatically save documents in Word 97-2003 compatible format by executing the following steps:

1. Click the Word 2007 button at top-right corner.

2. Click the Word Options button at the bottom.

The Word Options dialog box appears.

3. Click the Save option in Left pane.

4. Now, select Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) in the “Save file in this format” drop-down list in the “Save documents” section.

5. Click the OK button.

Word 2007 has been successfully configured. Now, Word 2007 will automatically save all documents in .doc format. This is how you can make Word 2007 documents compatible with all versions of MS Word.