Strategies for sharing documents with different versions of Word

If you share documents with people who use Word 2002, Word 2000, or Word 97, you can save your documents in the Word document format.

You can quickly create new documents or modify existing documents specifically for use in Word 97 by turning off features not supported by that version.

• Use the Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF converter to save documents    When you save a document in Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF format, Word searches through your document and replaces formatting that is not supported by Word 6.0 or Word 7.0 (Word 95) with formatting that is supported by those versions. Word displays a dialog box showing what formatting will change in your document.

  In addition, for the document you save in Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF format, Word automatically makes features unavailable that are not supported by Word 6.0 and Word 7.0 (Word 95). This makes it easy for you to create documents that will look the closest to what you create in Office Word 2003 when the document is viewed in Word 6.0 or Word 7.0 (Word 95).

  This converter is included with Office Word 2003. You can install it from the Microsoft Office Setup program by selecting it in the list of text converters.

• Turn off unsupported features    You can quickly create new documents or modify existing documents specifically for use in Word 6.0 and Word 7.0 (Word 95) by turning off features not supported by those versions.

  How?

  You must have a document open in Word to follow these steps.

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save tab.
  2. Select the Disable features introduced after check box, and then click Microsoft Word 6.0/95.

     When you save the document, if your document contains items that will be converted, Word displays a list of the features it will convert so that the document can be used in previous versions.

• Send the Word 97 for Windows/Word 98 Macintosh import converter    Users of Word 6.0 and Word 7.0 (Word 95) for the Microsoft Windows, the Microsoft Windows NT, or the Apple Macintosh operating systems who have installed the Word 97 for Windows/Word 98 Macintosh import converter can directly open Office Word 2003 documents.

  This converter is included with Office Word 2003. For more information about how to install and use the converter, see the Microsoft Office Online Web site. You can install it from the Microsoft Office Setup program by selecting it in the list of text converters.