More people are making the switch to Office 2007 and Office 2010 however there are still those clinging on to older versions who are unable to open the newer Office 2007 formats (such as .docx and .xlsx which are differentiated from older versions with the extra “x” on the end of the file extension).
I am sure there will come a point in the next year or two where the Office 2007 format will become the new default but until then you can save yourself some extra mouse clicks by setting the default document format to Office 2003.
For Office 2007:
- Click the Office button in the top left of your application (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc),
- Click on the “<Application> Options” button (so “Excel Options” in Excel, “PowerPoint Options” in PowerPoint, etc),
- Click on “Save” on the left hand side,
- Select “World 97-2003 Document” in the drop down box next to “Save files in this format”,
- Click “OK”.
- Click “File” in the top left of your application,
- Click “Options” down the bottom,
- Click on “Save” on the left hand side,
- Select “World 97-2003 Document” in the drop down box next to “Save files in this format”,
- Click “OK”.
Change the default document format in Microsoft Office Word 2007 & 2010
This little tip can save you the time and trouble of manually saving in Office 2003 formats as well the rework in having to save your documents in the older format when you’ve sent documents in the newer formats to people who aren’t on the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Office.
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