Check the compatibility of your Word 2007 documents

by Mary Ann Richardson | Jun 26, 2007 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Mary Ann Richardson, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word 2007, Word Processors, Office Suites, Software

Takeaway: Here's how to have Office check your Word 2007 document for possible conversion and compatibility problems before you send it out into the world.

Before you send out that beautifully formatted Word 2007 document, it's a good idea to have Office check the compatibility of your document with other versions of Word.

For example, if your document contains SmartArt (which is a feature that is not supported in earlier versions of Word), when a colleague using Word 2003 opens your document, the SmartArt graphics will be converted into a single object that cannot be edited.

To have Office check the document for features that are not supported in earlier versions of Word, follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Point to Prepare in the left pane and click Run Compatibility Checker.

Word 2007 provides a report that lists the document's unsupported features and details what you can do, if anything, to make your document readable in earlier versions.

If you frequently e-mail documents in compatibility mode, you can have Word automatically run a compatibility check every time you save a file. To do so, select the Check Compatibility When Saving In Word 97-2003 Formats check box in the Word Compatibility Checker dialog box before clicking OK to close the compatibility report.

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