[revsheila]

I am using Office 2004 on a Mac G5 running System OS 10.3.9. I have all the updates to Office and to my Mac OS 10.3.9.
When I save a word document to share with others who use PC's running various versions of Windows and MSWord for PC's, I get the message that there is a compatibility issue, that is: Word 6.0/95 compatibility options are set. So I go to Word menu, select Preferences, then Compatibility. I will find that "Custom" is set, so I change it to the recommended Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X.
Then I choose Reset All, and go back to the document, and by George, it reverts right back to the Custom settings that result in my getting the message that there is a compatibility problem.
Some documents are ok, but those are not usually the documents I need to share. The word documents I desperately need to share with PC users are invariablity the docs that I can't get the compatibility preferences to accept the change on.
Does anyone know how to overcome this problem short of throwing my computer out the window?

[shades]

In reply to:

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Then I choose Reset All, and go back to the document, and by George, it reverts right back to the Custom settings that result in my getting the message that there is a compatibility problem.

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Curious why you choose "reset All"?
When I save a document, I save it as a straight Word document (not geared to a specific version, that is, the first option in Save preferences is "Word Document"), and have never had a compatibility problem.

[revsheila]

Dear Shades,
You said: When I save a document, I save it as a straight Word document (not geared to a specific version, that is, the first option in Save preferences is "Word Document"), and have never had a compatibility problem.
When I originate a new document, I do as you do--simply save it as a Word document. Where the problem is coming from is that I am working with a group of people, one of whom created the original set of documents that we are now trying to edit and share. It is in saving these documents that the compatibility issues arise. When all else fails, I try all available options; hence, I tried everything including "reset all."
When saving the document, and it reports compatibility issues, namely Word 6.0/95, "ignore" is a viable choice, but "fix" (Toolbox) is grayed out. After looking it up in Help, I went to Word on the menu bar, preferences, compatiblity, and according to help, I tried choosing Word for 2000-2004 and X, and even though I accept that, I still get that word 6.0/95 compatibility issue, and then I go back to the Word/Preference/Compatility and sure enough it has reverted back (it says custom).
I don't know whether all of this means that if someone else creates the original document (NOT in read only), and they save it for Word 6.0/95 if that means that it can never again be changed to Word for 2000-2004 and X. Based on results and everything available in the Help menu, I have concluded that this must be so. What I was hoping for is that I was wrong, and that someone here knew how to get this to change.
I'm still hoping someone knows the magic secret!

[shades]

Unless someone specifically uses Word 6/Word 95, whoever saves the original file, should not save it as that option (it also greatly increases the size of the file, because it has to save so many options). Can they save it as straight Word, instead of the 6.0/95 option?

[Naphtali]

I run Word 2001 in OS 9.2.2. What you describe pertains, I believe, to your Normal Template. If you quit Word, then open your Normal Template (this is the name for my version of Word). Change your preferences, save, and quit. Now try making your file changes. And as was written, you need not reset all. Just make your changes and go.
Be sure to use the exactly identical fonts of PC users who will read. Otherwise, file might be correct but still look garbled on PC's screen. With few exceptions this means using Microsoft's TrueType fonts. TransType can convert fonts among formats, were this to be important.

[dmflagstaff]

Just wondering if there was a final solution to the Word problem in this thread.

I have the same problem using Word 2008 for Mac. So that other users with earlier versions of Word can open my docs, I save all docs as Word 2004-2007 format (Word 2008 opens these fine).

But without fail I get the compatibility check warning and without fail the problem it highlights is that Word 6.0/95 compatibility options are set. It refers me to Word preferences to fix the problem. When I go to Word preferences I can see preferences for various versions of Word -- including a set for Word 6.0/95. But when I try to unselect items for Word 6.0/95 it immediately changes to a custom setting (you are no longer editing Word 6.0/95 compatibility settings. Even if you do the Custom preferences and deselect everything from Word 6.0/95, it doesn't save and doesn't change anything.

Even if you open the Normal template and change preferences from there, it doesn't change anything -- you still get the compatibility check warning.

I've found I can't really ignore the compatibility check (you can do the compatibility check and the fix option is dimmed out and you can choose ignore there but I need to globally ignore 6.0/95 issues and can't find a way to do it). If I ignore it in the sense of just not running the compatibility check then occasionally others on PCs cannot open my documents -- other issues that come up are transparency in watermarks and so forth.

Since this problem has been a part of Word since 2005 (per this thread) I'm hoping someone has found a fix. It is very annoying and time-wasting and I would hope Microsoft would fix it.

Best,
DM