With the introduction of Office 2007 Microsoft made some pretty extensive changes to the file formats used across the whole suite. If you have sent someone a document created with either the 2007 or 2010 versions of Word and they say they can’t open them then they are probably using an older version of Word thay can’t read the file format.
First thing you need to do is check to see what version of Word they are using, the two most common older versions are Office XP (sometimes referred to as 2002) and Office 2003.
Once you know which version they have, it is quite easy using the Compatibilty Checker to save your document in a format the recipient can read:
- Activate the ‘File’ tab.
- Click ‘Info’
- Click ‘Check for issues’
- Click ‘Check compatibility’
In the resulting dialog box Select the required version of Word you wish to save your document as. In the bottom pane of the dialog you will see a summary of incompatibilities that arise, and the steps Word has taken to overcome them. Once you’re happy with the results click ‘OK’ and your document is saved.
