The problem with the latest Microsoft releases is that they aren’t backward compatible. Take Vista for example. There are only a special number of software that run on it. Good thing they weren’t that inconsiderate with Office 2007. At least, there’s still the option for you to save using older document formats. By the way, Office 2007 now, by default, uses a different format. Word 2007 saves its files using the .DOCX format.

However, since the world hasn’t shifted all to the latest Microsoft releases, chances are you might be sending other people documents in .DOCX format which they wouldn’t be able to open in Word 97-2003. You just have to make an effort to make sure the file format and you can do so by making sure that you select the Word 97-2003 format every time. Or just set the darned thing and forget about it.

How-to Geek wrote a great how-to on this. Here’s how you go about it:
1. Click the Office Button and click Office Word Options at the bottom of the panel
2. Select Save option at the sidebar and change the document format to Word 97-2003 in the drop-down menu
3. Click OK and you’re good to go. Word will now save using the 97-2003 format as default.