Saving A Word Document In A Different Format


Word’s native document format is new and differs from previous versions of Word formats. Instead of the .doc filename extension, Word 2007 uses .docx (the x is related to the XML format) for its native format.

You might need to save a Word document in a different format. Perhaps you have friends who still use Word 2003 or earlier. You can also save Word documents as web pages. This task shows you how to save Word documents in any format Word supports.

Prepare to Save
When you are ready to save your document, click your Office button and click the Save As button. Word displays the Save As dialog box.

Select a Location and Type the Filename
Click to change the location of your saved file if you don’t want to use the default location. Type your document’s filename in the File Name text box.

Select File Formats
Click the down arrow next to the Save as Type drop-down list box to display all the file formats that Word supports. Click to select one of the file formats. If, for example, you have Microsoft Works but not Word on your laptop, you could save your document as a Works file and email it to yourself. Retrieve your email on your laptop, and you’ll be able to start Works and edit the file on your laptop.

Request a Thumbnail
When you save a file, Word automatically clicks to select the option labeled Save Thumbnails for All Word Documents. Assuming that Windows Vista’s Aero Glass feature is enabled, you can see a live preview of your document in Windows Explorer’s thumbnails, when you press Alt+Tab to move between open windows that have your Word documents in them, and when you hover your mouse pointer over a taskbar button that represents an open Word document. If you don’t want to save a thumbnail for Word documents, click to uncheck this option. If you don’t use the Aero Glass feature, for example, there is no reason to consume extra disk space and time to create the thumbnail images for your Word documents.

Save the Document
Click the Save button to save your Word document in your converted file format.