I hate the ribbon of Word 2007, but I had to learn it for places that used Word 2007. I greatly prefer Office 2003 (and 2000) as my favorite version of all time (although at times I'd prefer to be using the text-based AppleWorks for the Apple II on my
Apple IIGS.).
As such I have both versions installed on my computer.
Now it seems that now and then, especially but not limited to when office updates come out, it seems to reset things so that everything is opening in Office 2007 again.
How do I set it up so that .doc and .rtf files open in my favorite Word processor (Word 2003) and only the .docx files open in 2007?
Searching provides instructions for XP that don't work under Vista or 7 (I am using Windows 7 Professional 64-bit), or this, which mentions the compatibility pack. While I have that, it still doesn't stop Windows from opening files in the wrong program. Actually
it screws it up and I should uninstall it so that Word 2003 can't open 2007 documents.
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-office_install/how-do-i-make-word-2003-the-default-file/43358eb0-ff06-487a-8641-1a8eb7444d6e
I hate the ribbon, so please don't try to convince me I should love it or live with it, just tell me how to do what I want to do, open double-click on .doc files to open Word 2003, and double-click on .docx files to open word 2007.
Oh, hopefully the instructions will also work with Excel and PowerPoint. I almost never use Infopath, Access, or Publisher so I'm not as worried about them.
On a related note, I just tried to spell-check a file I created with notepad, and when I right-clicked on it and chose Word from "open with", it opened Word 2007.
I then closed it, and when back, right clicked, chose "Choose default program", clicked browse, and went to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE
and it still opened Word 2007!
I verified that the path to Word 2007 is
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\WINWORD.EXE
What did I do wrong?
You now need to re-register Word 2003. This will give it control over the DOC format. Word 2003 is not natively compatible with DOCX format so the registration will not give it control over that format. It is not even compatible with DOTX, DOTM or DOCM
formats so they are not at issue.
There is a possibility that subsequent updates for 2007 will screw things up, but re-registering 2003 should fix it. Updates for Word 2003 will very soon finish.
See also http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm which covers the registration process and matters which relate to it.
Graham Mayor (Microsoft Word MVP 2002-2019)There is a possibility that subsequent updates for 2007 will screw things up, but re-registering 2003 should fix it. Updates for Word 2003 will very soon finish.
See also http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm which covers the registration process and matters which relate to it.
For more Word tips and downloads visit my web site
https://www.gmayor.com/Word_pages.htm
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