I've found allot of info on working with the two programs, but nothing on how
I actually transfer my 2003 Word documents from my old pc to the new pc which
has Word 2007. Do I have to have both programs on the new pc? I was hoping
the documents themselves could be moved to the new pc and its 2007 Microsoft
Word program. I'm a novice here and would appreciate any advice.
Don't do anything other than copy the documents to the new computer.
It is not necessary to have both versions on the same computer
(although it is possible to do so).
Word 2007 can open and save documents in Word 2003 format. It isn't
necessary to ever use Word 2007 format, although it's recommended
because (a) the files are much smaller, (b) they tend to be more
resistant to corruption, and (c) they make new Word features
available. If you send documents to other users and don't know which
version they have, it's better to stick with the older format.
For opening documents, set the dropdown to the right of the File Name
box to "All Word Documents" and just leave it there. That will show
both old- and new-format files.
When you open an old-format document, the title bar will say
"Compatibility Mode". Word will disable the new features that can't be
saved in the old format. If you plan to save it in the new format, and
want the new features, click the Office button (the colorful round
thing in the top left corner) and click the Convert command.
Otherwise, just work in Compatibiility Mode and be happy.
For saving, first click the Office button, click Word Options at the
bottom right of the menu, and click the Save tab. At the top of the
dialog, set the "Save files in this format" box to the format you
expect to use most often -- that can be "Word 97-2003 Document
(*.doc)" to use the old format as the default.
Whenever you want to save in the non-default format, you can click the
Office button, click the arrow to the right of the Save As command,
and choose the format you want: "Word Document" for the new format, or
"Word 97-2003 Document" for the old format. Alternatively, just click
the Save As command and then change the "Save as type" dropdown in the
dialog.
