Many people haven’t upgraded from Windows XP to Windows Vista yet and are still using the previous versions of Microsoft Office in which Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize the .DocX format. And those who have upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 are loving it, even though they miss the thing that Microsoft Frontpage was.

I am using Microsoft Office 2007 myself because I really like the improved, user-friendly Word 2007. The new default format in which the documents are saved – .docX, files take up less than half the disk-space as the .doc files with the same content. Thus, for personal use I save all my word documents as .docX files. But when I am to send these files over IM or through email – I can’t be certain that the person on the receiving end also has Word 2007 on his system.

.docX files take less than half the diskspace as the .doc files with same content

In that case, I create a duplicate copy (Save As) of my .docX file in the .doc format and send this one out so that anyone with the previous versions of Microsoft Word might be able to use it. To save valuable disk space, I delete these doc files then, and keep the docX only.

Saving Documents as DOC or DOCX

Saving a Word Document as DOC or DOCX

Just a few days back, on the last day of our summer training, I remember how bad we (me and my friends) got screwed up as one of us who was preparing the project files to be printed had saved the soft copies as .docX files and when he went to the stationary store for getting the print outs (half an hour away from college) it turned out that the guy didn’t have Word 2007 and he had to travel back to college, save all files as .doc and get back to the store to get them printed !

Stick to the Doc!

9 thoughts on “Stick to the Doc-Word 2007 Documents Backward Compatibility

    1. Hmmm.. Reading further down the page that you linked to, “Document element differences in previous versions” discourages me to open the newer file versions in old Office installations.

      Yes, upgrading anything is a good idea – But Microsoft Office retails at $150 for student and home use to $450 for professional edition. I upgraded as well, but not everyone has…

      And this is why I advocate the use of .doc format for sending word documents over the internet.

  1. When I used Office 2007, I made sure I save as with compatibility for Office 2003. Yesterday I got a file and it was in .xlsx, I was confused because now I use Office 2003 and it wasn’t opening, I thought this may need Office 2007, nevertheless I’ve got OpenOffice on another OS I use so I went there and changed the file format hehe! Many businesses are waiting for Windows 7 as well before upgrading from XP.

  2. Hi, I am currently using now Microsoft Office 2007. I found it great and very user friendly, I just want me to have an advice to you that every time you are making a word on 2k7 make it sure a hundred times that your file is to save as to compatibility mode 2003-2007, to avoid you r file to have a conflict when it is opened in a 2003 Office word, always double check on it, to avoid such mistakes again. Thank you for sharing this post it will help the other people too that is confused in using the 2007 Microsoft Office Word..
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  3. I prefer the doc file or the older version of MS Word because you are not sure whether the person you want to send the file to has the newer version of MS Word. So, to play safe, use the older version. But if you want to save space, use the 2007 version. Anyway, thanks for this very nice post! I enjoyed it!

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