When I use Microsoft Word 2007 and try to send the document to a contact they say they cannot open the file. I am running Windows 7.

Unfortunately without more information on exactly why they cannot open the file (such as an error message, or the exact point when they have difficulty opening the file) it will be difficult for me to provide specific advice on resolving this problem. However, the most likely cause is because you are saving the document in the new DOCX format and the recipient does not have a program which is capable of opening this new document format. Prior to Word 2007 the default format of Word documents was DOC. With the introduction of Word 2007 (and subsequent versions) a new file format was introduced called DOCX. This provides additional features and extensions to the original DOC format, but older versions of Word are not able to open this file format by default.

There are two ways around this issue. First, you can save your document in the old DOC file format (instead of DOCX) and then email the DOC file to your contact. To do this, open the document on your computer and then go to the Office menu > “Save As” > “Word 97-2003 Document”. I suggest that you save the new version of the document to an obvious place (such as the desktop) so that you don’t get that version confused with the DOCX version. Once the document has been saved, email that copy to your contact and hopefully they should be able to open the document.

The second way to resolve the issue is to advise your contact to download an update for their version of Word which allows them to open the new DOCX format. Most likely, they are probably using Word 2003 and fortunately there is an update available from Microsoft which allows Word 2003 (along with Word 2000 and 2002) to open these new file formats. Ask your friend to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats from www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3 . Once installed, they should now be able to open the new file formats.

If your contact continues to encounter difficulty opening the Word documents that you are emailing then please contact me again with more specific information about the problem and I can investigate further.