How do you save a file in Microsoft Word 2007 so people with Office 97-2003 or other programs can read it?
Office 2007 by default uses a more advanced "XML" format for
saving documents in order to support features like shadows or
reflections in images or better object positioning. This format is
given the name of the previous Office formats, with an "x" affixed
on the end. So while Office 97-2003 uses the .doc format, Office
2007 uses the .docx format, something not supported by old versions
of the program. Office 2003 and OpenOffice.org can only support the
.docx format with special add-ins.
In order to make files from Office 2007 accessible to people
with programs lacking .docx support, you can save your documents in
the older .doc format, or in the universal PDF format.
In order to save all future documents as a .doc file, click the
Office Orb at the upper-left, click the "Word Options" button at
the bottom of the drop-down menu, and in the Save tab you have the
option to save the documents in the Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)
file format. This will make the .doc format the default format. If
you just want to save an individual document in the .doc format,
you can simply choose "Save as" from the orb menu and select the
Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc) format.
In order to save Office 2007 files in the PDF format, for people
who cannot even open regular Office documents, you need a special
add-in found at http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidMSAddinPDFXPS
(Office 2008 for Mac has this feature built-in and doesn't require
the add-in). After downloading and installing the add-in, you can
save a document in the PDF format by clicking "Save as" from the
orb menu, and in the "Save as type" list you will have the PDF
option.