I have an older document created a number of years ago in Word, which I emailed to myself. I understand that there is a compatibility pack I can use so I can open this document in the new Word, but do I have to have Word 2000 on my computer to do this?
I don’t think you’ll have a problem opening an old Word doc in Word 2007. The problem is that the new Word format docx won’t open in previous versions of Word without the program. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=135
New versions of Word are very smart and will have no trouble opening your old ones. The problem is when an old version tries to open a doc that was made by a newer version.
Prior to Word 2007, Word hadn’t changed its data format since Word 97. Older files are no different to 2007 than files of Word 2003 – it’s all the same format.
You don’t need a compatibility pack to read older files in Word 2007. You need it only to read Word 2007 files in Word 2003.
The problem I’m having is with the old document that I emailed to myself. When I save it from gmail, it is saved as a DOC file, rather than a Microsoft Office Word Document. When I open it, it comes up in Notepad. If I open Word and drag this file to it, only part of the file comes up. In short, I don’t know what is going on.
This article might be able to help you.
ETA: Also, reading what you just added, have you tried right clicking on the file and going to “Open With…”? That might be a dumb suggestion, but I’m just throwing it out there.
Can you view it as a Google document to see if the text is all there? How important is the formatting?
Suppose you go into Word, go to File, and then Open, and find your file and open it? What happens then?
Great! It opens and the window title says “Compatibility Mode.”
Thanks everyone.