Courting Corruption in Word 2003?

[Kitty A]

Is the version displayed when the Tools | Options | Compatibility tab is
accessed the version in which the document was saved?
Is there a potential for corruption if features that were changed or
introduced as enhancements in Word 2003 (e.g. tables) are inserted in
documents saved as Word 2002 or lower?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hello Kitty

Is the version displayed when the Tools | Options | Compatibility tab is
accessed the version in which the document was saved?

Not really. It's a good indicator, if you reckon that the previous user
did not change them. It really _is_ possible to save a document in 2000,
open it in 2003 and manually set the compatibility options to 2002, or
2003, or any set of individual options <> any of the full version sets.
Or work with the document in 2000 and, prior to save, change the options
there already.

Is there a potential for corruption if features that were changed or
introduced as enhancements in Word 2003 (e.g. tables) are inserted in
documents saved as Word 2002 or lower?

No. A document may be more likely to get corrupted if it is a legacy
document, having been saved through different versions of Word in
ascending (or mixed) order. But by themselves, the compatibility options
mostly determine only how the document is displayed on
screen/paginated/printed, they don't really change anything with the
actual document content (except, well, the compatibility options ).

2cents
Robert

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I have some older documents, including some that have been recycled many
times, that are sometimes discovered to have Compatibility Options set for
Word 2.0 or 6.0! That always surprises me, and I'm always leary of changing
them.

 

[Kitty A]

Thanks very much for your response - you have alleviated our concerns!