Q:  I’ve recently received a new computer which has Microsoft Word 2007 installed. I authored a new Word document and sent it to a coworker as an email attachment, but they’re unable to open the attachment. What gives?

A: In short, without taking some action, documents created in the new version of Word are incompatible with earlier versions of Word.

In Office 2007, Microsoft changed the formats in which many of the core products in the Microsoft Office suite save: Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Let’s concentrate on Word as a concrete example. The new version of Word found in Office 2007 saves documents in a format that is unreadable by earlier versions of Word. You can tell the difference by looking at the extension at the end of the file name:  .doc is the earlier document type readable by Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, and Word 2003 while .docx is the new file type readable by Word 2007. You have three options to deal with this:
1. Allow the default format to be the new Office 2007 format, and choose to save to an earlier version on a case by case basis.
2. Set the default format to be the pre-Office 2007 format.
3. Encourage others to install the Microsoft update which allows earlier versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint to open documents created in 2007.

Option 1:  Default save in new version format; manually back save when desired

When you’re ready to save the document, click on the Office Button in the upper left corner of the application, then choose “Save As…”, and choose to save as “Word 97-2003 Document”

Option 2:  Default save in previous version format

Click on the Office Button in the upper left corner of the application, then click on the “Word Options” button in the lower right corner. In the “Word Options” dialog box, click on the “Save” section in the left pane. In the right pane, click the down arrow for the “Save files in this format:” drop box, and select the option for “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)”.

Option 3:  Install the Microsoft Compatibility Pack for earlier versions

Microsoft has released a Compatibility Pack with allows people with Office XP or Office 2003 to open, edit, and save files created in Office 2007. You can download the Compatibility Pack by visiting this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en