MS word 2010 and .doc files

tehidyman · Jun 12, 2012, 10:53:54

I have created over the years many .doc files in MS word 97

I recently had problems opening .docx attachments in Word97. MS compatibility download was a poor solution, but an on-line service is fine. However, I thought of getting MS office 2010 with Word 2010. I want to know if I will be able to open, edit and save my .doc files in word 2010. A Google search has indicated that there may be problems but I cannot work out if they will affect me. I have Windows 7 64 bit Home premium. Can anyone assist please?

Rik · Jun 12, 2012, 11:01:47

I have 2010 so could test for you, let me have a PM if you want me to and I'll give you my email addy...

Ray · Jun 12, 2012, 12:22:36

I've not had any problem with opening/editing or saving word.doc files in Word 2010.

JB · Jun 12, 2012, 12:48:57

Also consider trying the free GPL suite called Libreoffice:-

http://www.libreoffice.org/

This costs nothing and the word processor is capable of reading and writing .docx files. If you don't like it, just un-install at no cost.

pctech · Jun 12, 2012, 19:13:16

Yes you can, I spend a good part of my day advising people using Word 2010 how to save in Word 97-2003 document format.

Technical Ben · Jun 13, 2012, 16:35:00

Quote from: Ray on Jun 12, 2012, 12:22:36
I've not had any problem with opening/editing or saving word.doc files in Word 2010.

Or Open Office*.

*Other free document software is available, but use at your own risk, cos I only used that one.

Simon · Jun 13, 2012, 16:41:34

I've had formatting issues with Open Office.

Niall · Jun 13, 2012, 22:34:46

That's the main problem with open office. While it's fine for basic stuff, when it comes to formatting I've had a lot of issues with the layout and general formatting of some lengthy documents. That's actually what made my purchase office 2010 (for £38 while my mum was a student! Woo!)

Also, for power-point, it displays colours incorrectly, which is a nightmare for presentations.

pctech · Jun 14, 2012, 16:40:05

Yep not really a fan of Open Office either.

Not tried LibreOffice yet.

Simon · Jun 14, 2012, 16:57:49

I thought they were one and the same.

Ray · Jun 14, 2012, 17:11:17

So did I.

JB · Jun 14, 2012, 17:11:57

Quote from: Simon on Jun 14, 2012, 16:57:49
I thought they were one and the same.

I think it's a fork or break away from Open Office. I could never become happy with Open Office but so far LibreOffice seems OK.

Glenn · Jun 14, 2012, 17:14:19

Google have bought Quickoffice, a mobile suite

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/05/google-acquires-mobile-productivity-company-quickoffice/

pctech · Jun 14, 2012, 17:19:36

Prepare for an Ad supported free version that scans your documents then.

Niall · Jun 14, 2012, 23:37:34

I had the misfortune to use openoffice tonight. First time I'd used it in depth, coincidentally after posting this!

I was formatting my mums CV for her, and I swear that thing has a mind of it's own. Page one, formatting with bullet points and it does it how you'd expect. Page 2 has bullet points on every line, including the ones where there should be none. Page 3 it's a different style bullet point, and a larger font. On all three pages the settings were the same. Also, it decided to indent one page beyond the margins, one one line only. I could not get it to change any of this. My god it was annoying.

I'm sticking to Office 2010.

Technical Ben · Jun 16, 2012, 08:58:45

Sorry to hear that. I've actually only had the opposite experience. Open office does what I tell it, MS word does everything "automatically".
I remember the two worse bugs on the old Office 2000 we had was trying to website using their automatic website creator and it then failing because the "the song/.mp3 you wish to upload is not present on the disk". We did not want to upload any songs to our website.

Then it trying to OCR a picture and failing because "fonts not present" even though I never clicked any OCR button.

All in all that put me off it for life, and I only jump onto word 2002 (with the compatibility pack update so I can load 2010 files) to show docs that have compatibility issues.

nowster · Jun 17, 2012, 14:59:20

LibreOffice is a fork off OpenOffice from a couple of years back. Lots more work has been done on LibreOffice in that time, while OpenOffice stagnated. Sun originally "owned" the project, having bought it from Star Division of Germany. Sun got bought by Oracle who then divested themselves of OpenOffice to the Apache project. Development has recently resumed in earnest on OpenOffice.

Of the two, LibreOffice is by far the better at the moment.

PuntsWorth · Jun 17, 2012, 16:13:53

Hi,

Did an upgrade for a company who went from 97 to 2010 and the only problem we found was the org chart formatting went a bit crazy (going both ways on the file format)

As the customer had only 7 org charts, the project went within tolerances with no major issues.

Just a little off topic note, we found excel 97 file format was smaller with the same features than 2010 and shared the workbook better on a network share; last I heard they were still using Excel 2010 and still saving in 97 format.

Cheers.