How to Change Default File Saving Format from Docx to Doc in Word 2007
Docx is a new default file saving format being introduced in Word 2007 that is based on Open XML and uses ZIP compression to reduce the overall file size. However, you probably don’t want the file to be saved under docx format due to many people are still using Office 2000/2003/XP without Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack being installed, that make the new file format not fully compatible with existing word versions. Instead of changing the file format from docx to doc each and every time when you want to save a file, now you can change the default saving format directly by following the below steps.
Below are the steps showing how to change the default file saving format from docx to doc:
1) Click Office button, 
as located on the left top in word 2007
2) On the drop down menu, click Word Options button as located at bottom
3) For the pop up Word Options window, click Save as shown on left panel
4) Under Save documents section, click on the drop down of “Save files in this format”, then choose “Word97-2003 Document (*.doc)”.
5) Click OK button the save the setting.
Hopefully these simple steps will save you some time if you intend to change the default file format as I have spent some effort trying to locate it in its totally fresh interface for much productive daily work.
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Entries (RSS)
May 31st, 2009 08:06
Wow, that was easy. Thanks for the writeup buddy.
May 5th, 2009 21:17
yayyyy thanks so much =] (my teacher kept telling me I needed to submit it in Doc form and i didn’t know how >.<) Sooooo thanks again ^^!!!
May 3rd, 2009 23:01
Hi, this is great, but could you update this article with how to change the New Document formats when you right-click on the Desktop and select:
-> New -> New Word Documet
or
-> New -> New Excel Document
These still default to creating .docx and .xlsx documents ! If I want Office 2003 to be my default save format as you explain above, this becomes quite frustrating when I am creating new documents, so a complete solution should hopefully alter those New Document formats as well.
If you (or anyone else reading this !) have a solution for this, that would be greatly appreciated !!
Thanks.
April 5th, 2009 21:00
Hi! Thanks a bunch for taking time to write this up. I hadn’t yet searched for how to save in the .doc format, but I sure needed to! Now I can quickly tell fellow students and colleagues where to find this time-saving change.
February 27th, 2009 01:30
Yes, thanks for this. All of a sudden clients complaining, “Can’t open the file!” Would like to tell them to go find the converter like I had to do ~2 years ago, but oh well…
February 1st, 2009 04:04
Thank you very much, that was really helpful!!!!