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Change the default files save format from .docx to .doc in word 2007

 

office-2007

Microsoft word is the mostly used out of all the Microsoft office 2007 applications, but I have seen people some times in a situation when they were cursing Microsoft Word 2007.

It happens when you have saved some important document while using microsoft word 2007 with .docx extension and taken that file some where else where office 2003 or any version later than office 2007 is installed and you cannot open .docx files. 

As .docx is the new file format recognised only by office 2007, and office 2003 or later versions of office cannot open .docx word document files.

What is .docx?

It is the default file extension for saving documents in word 2007. These docx documents are essentially a bunch of zipped XML documents  

Let’s see how can you change the default file save format to .doc which is widely supported in the backward version of office 2007.


1. Open Microsoft Word, click office icon at the top left.

office-2007

2. Now, Click the Word Options

word-options  

3. Select Save in the left pane, then select Word 97-2003 Documents from the drop down.

save-file-extension 

4. Click OK

We hope you like this small tweak, but if still you have a .docx files which you want to open in office 2003 or later version of office, try using some free web services like Zamzar.com or docxtodoc.com that can convert .docx files to .doc

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Author + Admin: Abhishek Bhatnagar
Software Engineer by profession and blogger by passion, I blog about computer tips and tricks and solutions for computer problems. You can connect with me at twitter or know more about me on www.abhishekbhatnagar.com.

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30 Responses to “Change the default files save format from .docx to .doc in word 2007”

  1. Rohit on July 21st, 2008 | 10:40 pm

    Nice tip !

  2. Configure Office 2007 to Save as .doc instead of .docx on July 29th, 2008 | 2:02 pm

    [...] Compatibility Pack is, and you absolutely must switch back to saving your documents as .doc files, this Technix Update tutorial will guide you through reconfiguring the default file format in Word ‘07. Post a [...]

  3. CAS on July 30th, 2008 | 8:26 am

    Brilliant and useful. Thanks for the post…

  4. Ben on August 5th, 2008 | 11:48 am

    ^oops, ignore that comment
    it should say:

    “As .docx is the new file format recognised only by office 2007, and office 2003 or earlier versions of office cannot open .docx word document files.”

  5. SPAM on August 5th, 2008 | 12:04 pm

    Spam

  6. Vijay on August 5th, 2008 | 12:13 pm

    Thanks for the tip.

    If a file is already in *.docx format, one can install the “FileFormatConverters” program from Microsoft website which will convert *.docx files to *.doc, and you can open Word 2007 documents on earlier versions of Word too.

    Here’s the link to the download page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

  7. Frank on August 5th, 2008 | 12:15 pm

    Thanks a lot for the post.

  8. Life Clerks » Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype [Microsoft Word Tip] on August 5th, 2008 | 12:42 pm

    [...] with older versions of Word not being able to open your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC when you save files in Word 2007. [...]

  9. Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype « Big Joe’s Blog on August 5th, 2008 | 1:45 pm

    [...] with older versions of Word not being able to open your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC. [...]

  10. Default To Doc in Word 2007 on August 5th, 2008 | 2:14 pm

    [...] I finally decided to look for an option to change the default save format in Word. The article at Technix Update reminded me of that and I thought it would be nice to post the quick tutorial as [...]

  11. Davin Peterson on August 5th, 2008 | 3:11 pm

    The free web service is not at docxtodoc.com. The correct URL is http://www.docx2doc.com/.

  12. Change Word 2007 Default File Format « Your Mileage May Vary on August 5th, 2008 | 11:03 pm

    [...] Change the default files save format from .docx to .doc in word 2007 [...]

  13. .doc por default en Word 2007 | IdentidadGeek on August 6th, 2008 | 2:03 am

    [...] Via: Technixupdate [...]

  14. Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype [Microsoft Word Tip] | Super Fresh on August 6th, 2008 | 2:19 am

    [...] with older versions of Word not being able to open your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC when you save files in Word 2007. [...]

  15. Tech Tips and Tricks on August 6th, 2008 | 8:24 am

    I have found in the past that this will default back to .docx files for no apparent reason. perhaps this has been fixed in a service pack as I have not seen the action in the last few weeks but it was bad earlier this year where it would default back to .docx and I would have to do these steps to have it default back to .doc.

    Also I have setup the compatability pack on most other machines that I use that still have Office 2003 on them to make sure that everything will still open, compatability pack should be pushed through the enterprise as well if you have that option but are not upgrading to 2007 anytime soon

  16. Windows tip: Change the default filetype in Word 2007 « People’s Technology blogginess on August 6th, 2008 | 1:51 pm

    [...] Many thanks to technixupdate.com for this quick, easy, and helpful tip.  Cuz loard knows, Windows is not my forté.  [original] [...]

  17. Default To Doc in Word 2007 - 猫言猫语 on August 6th, 2008 | 11:33 pm

    [...] I finally decided to look for an option to change the default save format in Word. The article at Technix Update reminded me of that and I thought it would be nice to post the quick tutorial as [...]

  18. tearsword on August 7th, 2008 | 4:40 am

    nice tip, thx

  19. [Quick Posts] - Annoyances - Word 2007 | Skillett.com on August 16th, 2008 | 3:29 am

    [...] Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC in Word 2007! MyTop [...]

  20. JT on August 22nd, 2008 | 1:57 pm

    Awesome! Nice work!

  21. ninja on August 27th, 2008 | 7:35 pm

    my explorer started to save files in xls format. when i receive any document, lets say in .doc format in a mail and try to open or save (download) it on my pc, it saves in xls format….. any help? thanks.

  22. Matthew on August 31st, 2008 | 3:06 pm

    My Question is how do I chang the save format when I go to this one web site, to download a file it opens by its self it won’t ask me to save it to my Pc but when I go to any music site it says do you want to save is there any way to get my pc to ask this all the time?

  23. Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype [Microsoft Word Tip] | How 2 Tech on September 8th, 2008 | 11:46 am

    [...] with older versions of Word not being able to open your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC when you save files in Word 2007. [...]

  24. carol on October 1st, 2008 | 7:21 am

    THANK YOU SO MUCH! I sent something to a magzin for publishing and they lady said the DocX was all greek! I had just gotten a new laptop with Vista and had no idea this existed. I’m resetting it to word.

    thanks!

  25. Clark on October 17th, 2008 | 7:09 am

    All of the default save format settings are profile-dependent, and can find no help on this issue, for multi-user computers. Each user that signs on must make these changes for themselves unless you want to initiate a GPO at the domain level. Any other ideas would be most welcome!!!

  26. Vinodh on November 2nd, 2008 | 9:56 pm

    Thanks. I have a problem in this. After 3 or 4 days, the default save format changes back to *.docx. What could be the problem?

  27. Sarah on November 9th, 2008 | 1:44 pm

    What a great tip. Easy when you know how. Thanks very much.

  28. Pomothesseefrappy on December 30th, 2008 | 10:55 pm

    hello it is test. WinRAR provides the full RAR and ZIP file support, can decompress CAB, GZIP, ACE and other archive formats.
    lpkuxuugbdpwixhkbhmjhpqwhmsrazzxwtnhello

  29. Jon D. Carson on April 14th, 2009 | 7:23 am

    The latest version OpenOffice.org suite of office applications will happily open the dreaded M$ xml docs. And it has an incredibly accurate, fast .pdf writer built into it. It is a 100% free office suite that allows you to open and save to the old Microsoft Office formats. Give it a try.

  30. nomaan on June 10th, 2009 | 11:32 am

    Thanks a lot for the tip..
    It helped me a lot….thanks once again

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