Word03 rejects some Word2k files (says file is corrupt)

[??]

Why?
Is this a ploy by MS to make everybody update to Office 03?
I can't find any references on MS site about incompatibility issues with
Word2003 and all previous versions of Word. Eg. 97, 2K, XP.
The document will open in any of those versions but Word 2003 will not open
the file and pops up "Word was unable to read the document and may be corrupt"
I've been able to save the Word2K file as an RTF then as a W2K.doc file and
then I can open in 2003.
Did I waste my money buying office03?
What the?

 

[garfield-n-odie]

In Word 2003, click on File | Open, click on the little black triangle
at the right end of the Open button, choose "Open and Repair", and open
the Word 2000 file.

 

[??]

Not so easy at first to see where this feature is located.
Still think Word03 is crap compared to 2K.
I can't even make pdf's with hyperlinks within the (Word03) documents anymore.
Adobe + many others I've "free" trialed.
A definite waste of money Office03.