Problems with Word 2004 Compatibility Report

[Lyle]

I'm having a minor problem with Microsoft Word 2004 and wanted to see if anyone has a solution.

I open an older Word document (not sure which version it was created with) and it looks fine. However, when I go to Tools -> Compatibility Report and check the document, it reports:

Word 6.0/95 compatibility options are set.

with the explanation text:

The compatibilty options for this document are set to Word 6.0/95, which may cause lines to break differently than the author intended. To ensure that this document looks the same on computers running Word 97 or later, change the compatibility options to Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X in the Preferences dialog box.

OK. Most if not all of my co-workers are using very recent versions of Word, so I'd like to go ahead and fix this problem. So I open the Preferences dialog box, go to the Compatibility pane and modify the "Recommended options for:" dropdown box to use the "Microsoft Word 2000-2004 and X" option. Then I click OK.

However, if I run the compatibility report again, it continues to report that "Word 6.0/95 compatibility options are set." It appears that my setting change in the Preferences dialog box doesn't stick.

Any suggestions? Is this something worth worrying about?

 

[MisterMe]

.... Is this something worth worrying about?

No. I have used Word since 1989 when it was Word 3.0. I have gone through 4.0, 5.0, 5.1, 98, v.X, and now 2004. Word 2004 is the first to sport the Compatibility Checker. For 15 years, I got along just fine without it. For two years now, I have yet to find a useful purpose for the Checker. The Word user needs to understand that he/she should go carefully through each received file line-by-line to ensure proper formatting. Word-compatibility is an oxymoron.