Change Office 2007 Default File Save Formats and Extensions using Group Policy (GPO)
Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2007 Office System) uses a new XML based file formats and extensions for new documents, workbooks, spreadsheets or presentations that been created by Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. These new file formats (in .docx, .xclx and .pptx extensions) are not backward-compatible, meaning older version of Office suites such as Office 2003, Office XP and Office 2000 cannot open and read the XML files. And by default, Office 2007 will save the document, workbook or presentation as new XML file format, which cannot be immediately opened or viewed or edited by users with earlier version of Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
To solve the compatibility issues of new XML based Office files between various version of Office 2007, 2003 and 2002 (XP), Microsoft has released Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, which when installed on the computers of users using Microsoft Office 2003 or Office XP (2002), will allow them to open, edit and save documents in the new 2007 XML formats.
Another solution to allow a file created by Office 2007 to instantly available and readable or editable across all editions of Office suites, especially Office for Mac which also does not support new XML formats, is to save the file in an earlier Office format (97-2003) manually. To do so, a user will need to manually select “File Save As” option (cannot just simply click on Save button, which will still save as new XML format), and then select the file type and format as “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) format in the dialog box prompted.
Above methods are either troublesome, easily forget to perform or complicated to be implemented, as likely most user will be using old Office suites rather than upgrade to the new Office 2007. So installation of Office 2007 compatibility pack will be an massive exercise if you’re a system administrator managing thousands of clients. In this case, it would be easier to force the Office 2007 to save files in Office 97-2003 format, especially when you want to maintain a standard format for Office documents while company slowly migrate and convert to Office 2007. To save a file as old Office format automatically whenever click on “Save” in Office 2007, you can set or change the default file save options including file format or extension by using Group Policy (GPO).
To enable managing of file save options via GPO, firstly download 2007 Office System Administrative Templates (ADM), and then add the Microsoft Office 2007 Administrative Templates to the Group Policy Management Console. In the left pane of the Group Policy Management Console, double-click User Configuration, and then double-click Administrative Templates (Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) in Windows Vista). Then follows the following steps to set and change the default saving file format in Office 2007 programs.
To change default file save options in Office Excel 2007
- Double-click Microsoft Office Excel 2007, double-click Excel Options, and click Save.
- In the right pane, right-click Save Excel files as, and select Properties.
- In Save files in this format, select Enabled.
- In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.
- Click Apply to save the settings.
To change default file save options in Office PowerPoint 2007
- Double-click Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, double-click PowerPoint Options, and click Save.
- In the right pane, right-click Save files in this format, and select Properties.
- In Save files in this format, select Enabled.
- In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.
- Click Apply to save the settings.
To change default file save options in Office Word 2007
- Double-click Microsoft Office Word 2007, double-click Word Options, and click Save.
- In the right pane, right-click Save files in this format, and select Properties.
- In Save files in this format, select Enabled.
- In the drop-down box, select a default file save format.
- Click Apply to save the settings.
The possible value for the default file save format include:
For Excel: Office Excel 2007 workbook (.xlsx), Office Excel 2007 macro-enabled workbook (.xlsm),
Office Excel 2007 binary workbook (.xlsb), Web page (.htm, .html), Excel 97-2003 workbook (.xls), Excel 5.0/95 workbook (.xls)
For PowerPoint: Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation (.pptx), Office PowerPoint 2007 macro-enabled presentation (.pptm), PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation (.ppt)
For Word: Office Word 2007 document (.docx), Office Word 2007 macro-enabled document (.docm), Office Word 2007 macro-free template (.dotx), Office Word 2007 macro-enabled template (.dotm), Single file Web page (.mht), Web page (.htm, .html), Filtered Web page (.htm, .html), Rich text format (.rtf), Plain text (.txt), Word 97-2003 document (.doc), Word 97-2003 template (.dot), Flat XML document (.xml), Word 6.0/95 document (.doc), Word 6.0/95 Chinese (simplified) document (.doc), Word 6.0/95 Chinese (traditional) document (.doc), Word 6.0/95 Japanese document (.doc), Word 6.0/95 Korean document (.doc), Word 97-2002 and Word 6.0/95 rich text format (RTF) (.doc), Word 5.1 for Macintosh (.mcw), Word 5.0 for Macintosh (.mcw), Word 2.x for Windows (.doc), Works 4.0 for Windows (.wps), WordPerfect 5.x for Windows (.doc), WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS (.doc)
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January 4th, 2007 01:29
“Above methods are either troublesome, easily forget to perform or complicated to be implemented, as likely most user will be using old Office suites rather than upgrade to the new Office 2007.”
Let me help rephrase this one…
“The above methods would either be troublesome, easily forgetable, or difficult to perform. Especially since most users will be using older office suites, rather than upgrading to the new Office 2007.”
March 6th, 2007 23:16
For individual users in a mixed Office environment, here is the quick and dirty method: In an Office 2007 application select the Home Office button (top left), then click Word/Excel/Power Point Options at the bottom of the screen. Select Save in the left pane and use the drop-down to select Word/Excel/Power Point 97-2003 for Save files in this format.
March 6th, 2007 23:20
P.S. Jerm - forgetable is spelled with two T’s, but I don’t think spelling and grammar are the points of the post.
June 6th, 2007 03:17
You need to include a close HREF tag as your hyperlink runs down almost half of the article.
June 6th, 2007 03:24
Hi thanks. Have corrected the error.
January 26th, 2008 06:35
[...] Here is how you choose the default format 2007 saves in. Change Office 2007 Default File Save Formats and Extensions using Group Policy (GPO)
February 1st, 2008 00:58
I have made the change with GPO so that the default file save as is .doc. However when I right click on the desktop and click New -> Microsoft Office Word Document it creates a .docx file. Any way to fix this?
February 4th, 2008 03:02
Chris, after hunting around a couple of different sites, I managed to find the answer to your question:
Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to C:\Windows\SHELLNEW
Create a new (empty) Excel 97-2003 Workbook(*.xls) file named Excel11.xls in C:\Windows\SHELLNEW
Create a new (empty) Powerpoint 97-2003 Presentation(*.ppt) file named Pwrpnt11.ppt in C:\Windows\SHELLNEW
Create a new text document (using notepad or whatever). Paste the following in (just the stuff between the dotted lines):
———————————-
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xls\Excel.Sheet.8\ShellNew]
“Filename”=”Excel11.xls”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ppt\PowerPoint.Show.8\ShellNew]
“Filename”=”Powerpoint11.ppt”
———————————-
Save the file as “regentries.reg”. Right click on the file and select Merge then click yes when asked if you want to add the stuff to the registry.
Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.doc\Word.Document.8\ShellNew. Create a new String value named NullFile in here (don’t add any data to it – just creating the string value is fine).
Close regedit.
Note: if the options don’t show up the first time you try a right click, try again and they should be there)
If you want to remove the ability to create the 2007 format documents from the right click explorer menu (e.g. docx, pptx), delete (or rename) the following registry values:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx\Word.Document.12\ShellNew\\NullFile
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pptx\PowerPoint.Show.12\ShellNew\\FileName
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx\Excel.Sheet.12\ShellNew\\FileName
(Note: if the options aren’t removed the first time you try a right click, try again and they should be gone)
February 4th, 2008 03:03
Oops, the stuff between the dotted lines should read:
———————————-
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xls\Excel.Sheet.8\ShellNew]
“Filename”=”Excel11.xls”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ppt\PowerPoint.Show.8\ShellNew]
“Filename”=”Pwrpnt11.ppt”
———————————-
March 3rd, 2008 23:35
Major problem in this article above - When office 2007 users create a 2007 document and save as 2003 format. When the 2003 office user opens the document the file layout & formatting is messed up. Therefore the solution for all companies using a mixed office platform is to install the Compatibility pack & deploy using WSUS. NOT to SAVE AS 2003 format because if you do this it will not save the document as you would expect.********BEWARE all your nice formatting will not be visible to the 2003 office user without the compatibilty pack*******
April 16th, 2008 04:23
[...] There is a very good howto here at mydigitallife [...]
May 19th, 2008 11:07
[...] Users on 2007 can opt to do a “Save As” and save as the older file type. But now you as an Admin of a Active Directory domain can force your users default file type to once again be doc or xls. This requires Group Policy and adding templates to your schema. Check out the walk through below from MyDigitalLife. [...]