WordXP -> Word2000

February 21, 2004 11:37 PM

I'm having trouble saving a Word XP Letterhead design into a format compatible with Word 2000.

Saved as whatever the .doc default format is in XP, the document makes Word 2000 complain that it can't find fonts (like Arial) and behave oddly.

There is an option to save the Document as "Word 97-2002 & 6.0/95 - RTF (*.doc)". However, this bloats the file size from a dainty couple hundred kb to 7 MB (or higher, if I'm using TIFs instead of GIFs for the header/footer images). Are there any other options?

posted by weston to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

It used to be the pure form of Rich Text Format (*.rtf) was a more-or-less reliable means of communicating between word 6.0 and '97. I don't know if this still works. As sort of a last resort, supposedly OpenOffice Writer knows how to read and write both file types.
posted by wobh at 2:34 PM on February 22, 2004

OpenOffice is excellent for this kind of thing.
posted by seanyboy at 4:06 PM on February 22, 2004

Try the Office Resource Kit converter pack. Also peruse the conversion help tips, especially the one that tells you to go to Tools|Options, select the Save tab, and check the Disable features introduced after option and select the appopriate version. Ostensibly the .doc format is flexible enough that versions from 97 through XP all can open each other's files (although obviously some features may not work).
posted by dhartung at 9:44 PM on February 22, 2004