Weekly Computer Tip # 243
29 August 2008


Save documents by default in an old MS Office file format
(Office 2007)

Hope you all had a great Bank Holiday Weekend, whatever you were up to. (I only got 23 Out Of Office messages when I sent the tip last Saturday, so I guess lots of you were frolicking around in the back garden?!) On with this week's tip ...

If you're using MS Office 2007 you might have noticed the end of a filename has switched from a three letter to a four-letter filename extension (for example .docx) indicating a change in the way documents are stored. This means that, although you can open old files just fine, if you want to share a document with somebody who is still using an older version of MS Office, you have to save it in a compatible format. (You can do that by choosing the Office button, following which you select Save As and choose, say, Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).) But what if you are mainly sharing files with folks using an earlier version of MS Office? Well, why not change the settings so that documents are saved in the old file format by default.

Here's how:

  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button.
  2. Click the relevant Options button (say, Word Options) at the bottom-right side of the menu.
  3. In the category list on the left side, click Save.
  4. Next to Save files in this format, select, say, Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).
  5. Click OK.

By the way, in Access 2007 this option can be found on the "Popular" tab so step 3 isn't required as initially, the settings for the Popular category are displayed.

Speaking of Microsoft Access ... I've added a new course to our Office 2007 training schedule ... Microsoft Access 2007 Intermediate. So if you want to take advantage of the more advanced features of Access 2007 then come along to the Sun House on Thursday 23 October. See msacc2007im.html for full course details.

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