Saving Backwards Compatible Files from Microsoft Office 2008
Recently, because of the release of Microsoft Office 2008 for the Macintosh, I have been receiving a lot of requests from individuals who are unable to open the new default DOCX format that is saves Word documents as. Ostensibly, this is because the recipient is running Mac Office 2004 or earlier, versions incompatible with the new format.
In this article I take a quick look at 2 options so that you don’t have to pull your hair out trying to get a document open.
Saving A New 
Format (.DOC)
One way to deal with the issue is to ask the sender to re-save the file for you in a backwards compatible manner. This would mean simply opening the document again, selecting “Save As” from the “File” drop menu and then selecting the “Word 97-2004 Document (.doc)” format option.
For the time being, it probably makes sense for them to do this by default , as many people are still in the process of upgrading to compatible versions of Microsoft Office both on the Macintosh and on Windows Peecees. They themselves don’t necessarily need to upgrade to a new version but perhaps just install software updates for Office.
Using The Portable Document Format (.PDF)
If you are simply sending a document for viewing and don’t expect the recipient to send it back with any changes, then it may well be worth considering printing the document to PDF so that they can read and/or print it from Preview or Acrobat Reader. The function of printing to PDF is built right into Mac OSX and therefore no added installation of software is required. To Print-To-PDF, simply select “Print” from the “File” drop menu and then “Save as PDF …” from the PDF button in the bottom left-hand corner.
The great advantage of printing documents to PDF for emailing, or otherwise, is that PDF is a universally accepted document format, and that doesn’t require anything but FREE software to be able to view.
Conclusion: Quick and Simple Solutions
As you can see, being able to send and receive documents that are compatible accross the board is a no brainer. It doesn’t require that much effort and makes everyone’s life a lot easier. So next time you send a document and you are running MS Office 2008, consider how you save the document and what tools the recipient(s) have at the other end to be able to read it.
