Those are 3 separate things you are mentioning here;
-old formats (doc, xls, ppt, etc...) are always opened in compatibility mode
by their respective application. This has nothing to do with Outlook by the
way.
-documents are opened in Read Only mode when you open them directly from the
Reading Pane. To open them in read/write mode, open the message first by
double clicking on it and then open the attachment.
-When those commands are grayed out, it usually means that you haven't
activated your version of Office yet. You are probably also no longer able
to create new documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.howto-outlook.com/
Outlook FAQ, HowTo, Downloads, Add-Ins and more
http://www.msoutlook.info/
Real World Questions, Real World Answers
-----
"Geojeff" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news

57AD297-A5A7-4C81-AFC5-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Have recently upgraded computer using Vista and Office 2007. Old
> documents
> will only open in compatibility mode; ie read-only. How do I change this?
> Also Outlook has stopped allowing full access to commands and now greys
> out
> popular commands eg new, reply, forward etc?