You have just finished up an extensive project that took several hours to complete.  After working on the project all night and sending yourself an email of the document, you feel relieved.  The deadline is near and when you go to your email to open the attachment you find that an error occurred.  All the hard work that you put it your project is lost.  You attempt to call a computer repair technician to help you with the problem.  One question still remains unanswered…Why is it lost?

You are a student who has been working frantically all night long.  After pulling an all-nighter, you discover that your printer is out of ink.  You find yourself rushing to the nearest school library first thing in the morning to try to hurry and print your paper.  Like most college students, you are a master of procrastination and assume that your document will open just fine.  However, the school has a different version of Microsoft Office and your file won’t open.  There isn’t enough time to call a computer repair technician and the project is due in just a few moments.  Why was it lost?

Formats.

When attempting to open Microsoft Office 2007 documents on older versions of Microsoft Office such as Microsoft 2003 there will be a compatibility error that will prevent your files from opening.  Like the two situations above they can be quite costly!  Here is a better explanation of the formats Microsoft Office uses.

Microsoft Office 97-2003 Format

Microsoft Office versions that range from Office 97-2003 are saved in a .doc format.  Regardless of what version of Microsoft Office is used between 97 and 2003, the default way in which the files save is .doc format.

Microsoft Office 2007 Format

For years the .doc has been the standard for formats saved with Microsoft Office.  Now, Microsoft Office 2007 uses a .docx format.

The changes in the format have caused some complications for those saving from Office 2007 to older versions.  However, a simple change in the options can set the default back to the .doc format and it is very simple, you can do it without the use of a computer repair technician.  In the process, you can ensure that these problems never happen to you!