Word Compatability mode

[The Ag Guy]

Running Office 2007 for Home and Students on a laptop running Vista 64-bit
operating system. I have set Word to save files in Word 2003-97 format as
the default. I am having problems where some folks with Office 2003 or
Office XP cannot open the .doc file that is generated from this copy of Word
2007. Word 2003 or XP will load the file far enough that you can read the
first page but the hourglass doesn't go away - so you cannot navigate the
file or print it.

This happens to files that are e-mailed as attachments as well as those that
are moved via a USB thumb drive.

I have 2 older computers at home, both running Windows XP and Office XP.
One freezes up when loading a .doc file from my newest machine and one reads
it just fine. The computer that reads it fine has the Office 2007 conversion
update, the other one doesn't.

Ideas?

 

[akedm]

This is expected with the default .docx extension of the Word 2007 program.
To get around it permanently set your default save-as filetype to .doc (Word
2007 > Office Button in upper left corner > Word Options button on bottom of
popup window > Save tab on lefthand side > "Save files in this format:"
select "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)"

To do it file by file (i.e. as needed) then SAVE AS (not SAVE) the 97-2003
filetype.

 

[grammatim]

DON'T try to work directly from an email or a flash drive. Copy the
file to your hard drive before opening.

 

[The Ag Guy]

Thanks,
The first thing I did after getting Office 2007 was change the default to
save all documents as Word 97-2003 *.doc. I have also verified that the
extension is .doc not docx on all documents, inclding the "problem ones".
Have the same problem opening files that have been saved using "save as" and
selecting the Word 97-2003 option from the Ribbon.


Thanks

 

[The Ag Guy]

Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. We saved the e-mailed files to the desktop
before trying to open them. Also tried opening the files transferred via
flash drive boith from the drive and also saved them to the desktop and tried
opening them from there. Had the same results in all cases - file opened up,
got the character count at the bottom of the screen, click anywhere on the
screen and get the hourglass that never goes away. Use task manger to get
out of Word (Office XP). Open Word the next time and it tries to recover
the file but hangs again.

Again, these files open in Word (Office XP) just fine on the computer that
has the Office 2007 compatability add-on/update but not on a plain-Jane
installation of Word XP with all "normal" updates applied.

Thanks,