Office 2007 file format

[FrankSG]

I've recently installed Office 2007. I noticed that when I save a file in Word, by default it saves it with the file extension DOCX. But I have the option of saving it with the 2003 extension of DOC. If I save it at the default of DOCX, will the older versions of Word be able to open it? My other question is: Does anyone know what MS had in mind when it changed it to DOCX?:confused:
There must be a good reason----I suppose.:confused: Thanks

[123456]

I've recently installed Office 2007. I noticed that when I save a file in Word, by default it saves it with the file extension DOCX. But I have the option of saving it with the 2003 extension of DOC. If I save it at the default of DOCX, will the older versions of Word be able to open it? My other question is: Does anyone know what MS had in mind when it changed it to DOCX?:confused:
There must be a good reason----I suppose.:confused: Thanks

You can't open *.docx files with Office 2003 or earlier. M$ probably did this for 2 reasons: to support new features of Word and force customers to upgrade to 2007 to make money.

[PrntRhd]

123456 has it exactly right, it is MS' planned obsolescence of the Office 2003 software.
You can also use the Compatibility Pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

[FrankSG]

This tells me that if I'm going to send a document to someone, if I'm not sure what software they have, it's best to save the file with the DOC extension.

[Paul Komski]

This tells me that if I'm going to send a document to someone, if I'm not sure what software they have, it's best to save the file with the DOC extension.

I haven't ever used MSOffice-2007 (I still use Office 97 and Open Office) but another option has generally been to save as a web-page. Such HTML documents created by MSOffice will open, by default, into MS-Office in a PC that is running the appropriate version or by any browser in any operating system since HTML is a universal format.

Saving as RTF format is another approach whereby even those with no Office Suites can open them OK.

[classicsoftware]

You can set it to automatically save as Word 2003 documents. Anyone with Office 2003 can download a patch to read the new file versions

[FrankSG]

You can set it to automatically save as Word 2003 documents.
Sounds like a good idea--I think I'll do that. Unless there is an advantage of saving it to the 07 format.