Previously, Office has always provided backward compatibility with the .doc and .ppt file extension.
As of Office 2007, Microsoft made 2 majorly terrible decisions. The first was to change the UI to something that resembled my left scrotum and wasted more screen space than Paul Mason.
I know its not Paul Mason, but I just found this picture funny.
The second was to bring a new file extension and save it as default. Microsoft must of realised they pissed off several hundreds and thousands of people, because they release a compatibility pack allowing people with older versions of Office to open the new format. Install it here.
Luckily, they provided a way to change the default compatibility. Unfortunately, its hidden away in that stupid "Office" button that doesn't have a damn label.
- First, click on that stupid Office orb thing in the top left corner.
- This will show you a menu with some common tasks, but skip all that and go down to "Word Options" in the bottom. (For other applications such as Powerpoint and Excel, etc, it'll display their respective names)
- Click into the "Save" category in the options and change the "Save files in this format" option to the older 2003 format.
- OK to save and close.
- Do the world a favour and pass this onto every other poor soul that has to use Office 2007.
