Word 2007: How to Force Compatibility Mode for New Docs

[funnybroad]

In Word 2007, I have configured my default save format to "Word 97 – 2003
Document (*.doc)†. However, I cannot get newly created documents to
'kick-in' to [Compatibility Mode] unless I save the file once.

The other Office 2007 applications (Excel & PowerPoint) automatically
kick-in to compatibility mode if you've got the default save/as set to the
97-2003 formats, and you start a new workbook or presentation.

Is this a bug? If so, when will it be fixed?

 

[Maurice]

I tried and it seems very willing to save my documents in the format you have
stated. I assume you have set the option under the Word Options? After that
close word start again and you should be ready to go.

 

[funnybroad]

Thanks for your response, but I tried that.

I think something is wrong with my installation. I can set my default save
format in Word Options to the 97-2003 format over and over, but no matter
what I do, newly created files still default to the new format. They
"switch" to compatibility mode only after I save them the first time. And
the default save format does come up as 97-2003 format.

I tried and it seems very willing to save my documents in the format you have
stated. I assume you have set the option under the Word Options? After that
close word start again and you should be ready to go.

--
Maurice Ausum

In Word 2007, I have configured my default save format to "Word 97 – 2003
Document (*.doc)†. However, I cannot get newly created documents to
'kick-in' to [Compatibility Mode] unless I save the file once.

The other Office 2007 applications (Excel & PowerPoint) automatically
kick-in to compatibility mode if you've got the default save/as set to the
97-2003 formats, and you start a new workbook or presentation.

Is this a bug? If so, when will it be fixed?

 

[funnybroad]

Update:

I have installed Office 2007 (purchased through my company's home purchase
program) on my home computer.

I am observing the same thing, so I don't think the problem is with our
installation at work.

According to the Office 2007 Resource Kit, if you've got your default
save/as format configured to be the 97-2003 formats, when you start a new
document, it should automatically start in Compatibility Mode.... you
shouldn't have to save it in the legacy format first.

Thanks for your response, but I tried that.

I think something is wrong with my installation. I can set my default save
format in Word Options to the 97-2003 format over and over, but no matter
what I do, newly created files still default to the new format. They
"switch" to compatibility mode only after I save them the first time. And
the default save format does come up as 97-2003 format.

I tried and it seems very willing to save my documents in the format you have
stated. I assume you have set the option under the Word Options? After that
close word start again and you should be ready to go.

--
Maurice Ausum

In Word 2007, I have configured my default save format to "Word 97 – 2003
Document (*.doc)†. However, I cannot get newly created documents to
'kick-in' to [Compatibility Mode] unless I save the file once.

The other Office 2007 applications (Excel & PowerPoint) automatically
kick-in to compatibility mode if you've got the default save/as set to the
97-2003 formats, and you start a new workbook or presentation.

Is this a bug? If so, when will it be fixed?

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

When you click on the SmartArt icon, do you get the new SmartArt stuff
or the old org chart thing? If you get the org chart thing, then you are
in Compatibility Mode and it just doesn't show it until you save it
once.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[funnybroad]

Thanks for responding.

That is a really good question, and the technical lead on our Office 2007
Deployment Project team asked the same thing. But unfortunately, that's not
the case. I can indeed use all "new features", such as Themes, SmartArt (the
new stuff comes up), etc...

Can you do me a favor, and try it on your installation of Word 2007? I
posted this over on Tek-Tips, and someone there reported the same behavior,
although he said he didn't think it's a "bug". What's your opinion? I think
if an application doesn't behave as described in the resource kit, it's a
bug.

It may sound like I'm making a big deal over a small thing (all I have to do
is save it once... so what's the problem?)

The problem is that we've got to roll this out to 20,000+ workstations, and
due to new file format incompatibilities with some of the applications we
run, we are going to have to stay with the legacy file formats until those
applications can catch up next year. I'd rather fix this behavior with Word
2007, rather than try to get 20,000+ users to remember to always save their
newly created document before they start to edit it, so that they don't
inadvertently use a new feature that isn't 100% feature-refresh.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I can affirm that I'm seeing exactly what you see, and I agree that it's a
bug. Getting Microsoft to agree that it's a bug, however, might be a little
more difficult.

The only work-around I'm aware of is to immediately save a new document --
thereby naming it -- which then forces it into compatibility mode.

Note. There actually are TWO Word 97-2003 options, and only one of them (the
one that reads: "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" actually works to give you a
compatibility mode document when saved. The 2nd one (which doesn't result in
a compatibility mode document) is "Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF (*.doc)". The
latter document type willingly accepts SmartArt, so I'm guessing that .rtf
has been updated. Why is says "97-2003" instead of "97-2007" however, is
beyond me.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for responding.

That is a really good question, and the technical lead on our Office 2007
Deployment Project team asked the same thing. But unfortunately, that's
not
the case. I can indeed use all "new features", such as Themes, SmartArt
(the
new stuff comes up), etc...

Can you do me a favor, and try it on your installation of Word 2007? I
posted this over on Tek-Tips, and someone there reported the same
behavior,
although he said he didn't think it's a "bug". What's your opinion? I
think
if an application doesn't behave as described in the resource kit, it's a
bug.

It may sound like I'm making a big deal over a small thing (all I have to
do
is save it once... so what's the problem?)

The problem is that we've got to roll this out to 20,000+ workstations,
and
due to new file format incompatibilities with some of the applications we
run, we are going to have to stay with the legacy file formats until those
applications can catch up next year. I'd rather fix this behavior with
Word
2007, rather than try to get 20,000+ users to remember to always save
their
newly created document before they start to edit it, so that they don't
inadvertently use a new feature that isn't 100% feature-refresh.

When you click on the SmartArt icon, do you get the new SmartArt stuff
or the old org chart thing? If you get the org chart thing, then you are
in Compatibility Mode and it just doesn't show it until you save it
once.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

I gave it a try here too, and I see the same behavior. It does look like
a bug.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I can affirm that I'm seeing exactly what you see, and I agree that it's a
bug. Getting Microsoft to agree that it's a bug, however, might be a little
more difficult.

The only work-around I'm aware of is to immediately save a new document --
thereby naming it -- which then forces it into compatibility mode.

Note. There actually are TWO Word 97-2003 options, and only one of them (the
one that reads: "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" actually works to give you a
compatibility mode document when saved. The 2nd one (which doesn't result in
a compatibility mode document) is "Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF (*.doc)". The
latter document type willingly accepts SmartArt, so I'm guessing that .rtf
has been updated. Why is says "97-2003" instead of "97-2007" however, is
beyond me.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for responding.

That is a really good question, and the technical lead on our Office 2007
Deployment Project team asked the same thing. But unfortunately, that's
not
the case. I can indeed use all "new features", such as Themes, SmartArt
(the
new stuff comes up), etc...

Can you do me a favor, and try it on your installation of Word 2007? I
posted this over on Tek-Tips, and someone there reported the same
behavior,
although he said he didn't think it's a "bug". What's your opinion? I
think
if an application doesn't behave as described in the resource kit, it's a
bug.

It may sound like I'm making a big deal over a small thing (all I have to
do
is save it once... so what's the problem?)

The problem is that we've got to roll this out to 20,000+ workstations,
and
due to new file format incompatibilities with some of the applications we
run, we are going to have to stay with the legacy file formats until those
applications can catch up next year. I'd rather fix this behavior with
Word
2007, rather than try to get 20,000+ users to remember to always save
their
newly created document before they start to edit it, so that they don't
inadvertently use a new feature that isn't 100% feature-refresh.

When you click on the SmartArt icon, do you get the new SmartArt stuff
or the old org chart thing? If you get the org chart thing, then you are
in Compatibility Mode and it just doesn't show it until you save it
once.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]

 

[funnybroad]

Thanks very VERY much for trying that out for me. Believe it or not, you
just made my job a lot easier!

I gave it a try here too, and I see the same behavior. It does look like
a bug.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://ribboncustomizer.com
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I can affirm that I'm seeing exactly what you see, and I agree that it's a
bug. Getting Microsoft to agree that it's a bug, however, might be a little
more difficult.

The only work-around I'm aware of is to immediately save a new document --
thereby naming it -- which then forces it into compatibility mode.

Note. There actually are TWO Word 97-2003 options, and only one of them (the
one that reads: "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" actually works to give you a
compatibility mode document when saved. The 2nd one (which doesn't result in
a compatibility mode document) is "Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF (*.doc)". The
latter document type willingly accepts SmartArt, so I'm guessing that .rtf
has been updated. Why is says "97-2003" instead of "97-2007" however, is
beyond me.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for responding.

That is a really good question, and the technical lead on our Office 2007
Deployment Project team asked the same thing. But unfortunately, that's
not
the case. I can indeed use all "new features", such as Themes, SmartArt
(the
new stuff comes up), etc...

Can you do me a favor, and try it on your installation of Word 2007? I
posted this over on Tek-Tips, and someone there reported the same
behavior,
although he said he didn't think it's a "bug". What's your opinion? I
think
if an application doesn't behave as described in the resource kit, it's a
bug.

It may sound like I'm making a big deal over a small thing (all I have to
do
is save it once... so what's the problem?)

The problem is that we've got to roll this out to 20,000+ workstations,
and
due to new file format incompatibilities with some of the applications we
run, we are going to have to stay with the legacy file formats until those
applications can catch up next year. I'd rather fix this behavior with
Word
2007, rather than try to get 20,000+ users to remember to always save
their
newly created document before they start to edit it, so that they don't
inadvertently use a new feature that isn't 100% feature-refresh.

:

When you click on the SmartArt icon, do you get the new SmartArt stuff
or the old org chart thing? If you get the org chart thing, then you are
in Compatibility Mode and it just doesn't show it until you save it
once.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]

 

[funnybroad]

Thanks Herb! Not only did you confirm it for me (thank you very much), but
you agreed it was a bug. Yea! Just for that, I'm picking up your book
tomorrow at Barnes & Noble...

I'll be sure to let you know if/when I hear back from anyone in the
highly-fortified and guarded Office 2007 Team bunker.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

I can affirm that I'm seeing exactly what you see, and I agree that it's a
bug. Getting Microsoft to agree that it's a bug, however, might be a little
more difficult.

The only work-around I'm aware of is to immediately save a new document --
thereby naming it -- which then forces it into compatibility mode.

Note. There actually are TWO Word 97-2003 options, and only one of them (the
one that reads: "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)" actually works to give you a
compatibility mode document when saved. The 2nd one (which doesn't result in
a compatibility mode document) is "Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 - RTF (*.doc)". The
latter document type willingly accepts SmartArt, so I'm guessing that .rtf
has been updated. Why is says "97-2003" instead of "97-2007" however, is
beyond me.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

Thanks for responding.

That is a really good question, and the technical lead on our Office 2007
Deployment Project team asked the same thing. But unfortunately, that's
not
the case. I can indeed use all "new features", such as Themes, SmartArt
(the
new stuff comes up), etc...

Can you do me a favor, and try it on your installation of Word 2007? I
posted this over on Tek-Tips, and someone there reported the same
behavior,
although he said he didn't think it's a "bug". What's your opinion? I
think
if an application doesn't behave as described in the resource kit, it's a
bug.

It may sound like I'm making a big deal over a small thing (all I have to
do
is save it once... so what's the problem?)

The problem is that we've got to roll this out to 20,000+ workstations,
and
due to new file format incompatibilities with some of the applications we
run, we are going to have to stay with the legacy file formats until those
applications can catch up next year. I'd rather fix this behavior with
Word
2007, rather than try to get 20,000+ users to remember to always save
their
newly created document before they start to edit it, so that they don't
inadvertently use a new feature that isn't 100% feature-refresh.

When you click on the SmartArt icon, do you get the new SmartArt stuff
or the old org chart thing? If you get the org chart thing, then you are
in Compatibility Mode and it just doesn't show it until you save it
once.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]

 

[Paul Gregory]

I have the opposite problem. I cant get Word NOT to start in
compatibility mode? I've changed the options, but every new document
is in compatibility mode and I have to choose "Convert" to get out of
it...

Any help?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I would try renaming Normal.dotm and Normal.dot. They're located in the User
templates file location (in Vista, when you choose File - Open, it would be
in the Templates location; in Windows XP, I think this is listed as "Trusted
Templates).

After you discover the location.. close Word, then rename those two files
(e.g., as oldnormal.dotm and oldnormal.dot). Then start Word, and see if the
problem is fixed.

If not, then we can look at renaming/deleting Word's Data key in the
registry.

 

[Paul Gregory]

Thanks Herb,

Tried that and it didn't work.

If I open Normal.dotx or Normal.dotm directly from the Open dialog,
then Word goes into non-compatibility mode, but, of course I am
editing the template file. If I double click on them in Explorer, then
Word opens a new document, but in compatibility mode...

Next step?

Thanks!

 

[Paul Gregory]

I went into registry deleted the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

key and the

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data

key and I changed

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options
\CompatMode from 1 to 0

This worked.

Question: Should I even have the office 11 registry key in the
registry?

Thanks!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Did you have Word 11 (2003) on that computer (now or previously)? If so...
then the registry entries are leftovers, and shouldn't cause problems.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Incidentally, you've inadvertently hit upon something that a number of users
have been searching for since Word 2007 was released!!!

I don't know how the CompatMode option was created--I had to manually create
it here--but creating it will cause Word 2007 to default to compatability
mode right from the start -- even before you've attempted to save the file!
This is a wonderful discovery! It puts Word 2007 on a par with Excel and
several other Office 2007 programs. I suspect that this setting is supposed
to be available through the interface, but was left out due to a programming
oversight. Are you working in an organization that might've done this
through a group policy setting or some other force-feed of settings done
through a network installation?

In any case...

For any lurkers... to force compatability mode for new document, do the
following:

Find the following section in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options

In the right panel, right-click and choose New - DWord

Replace New Value #1 with CompatMode

Double-click CompatMode, and replace the 0 with a 1.

Close the registry, then start Word.

 

[Paul Gregory]

Yes. My school's IT people installed it.