The SaveAs option in Word 2000

Most computer programs give you the option of saving your work a format not 'native' to the program. Word 2000 is no exception. Microsoft have however, restricted the number of 'back options' available. The most charitable view of this is that Word 2000 contains so many new formatting controls that were lacking in the earlier versions that enabling a save to early versions of Word (say Word 2.0), would disadvantage the user because they could not use these new control tools. Another view is of course that Microsoft have a vested interest in getting all users to upgrade to the latest version of office. 

Saving Word 2000 documents for Word 97 users

Open your document in Word 2000.

Click File>SaveAs>. A Save as dialogue box appears.

In the drop down list 'Save as type", choose Word 97 - 2000 & Word 97/6.0 RTF as shown in the figure below.

Word will then save the document in Rich Text Format and earlier versions of Word (after Word 6.0) will be able to open the file successfully.

Note: You may receive a message that the converter to output the Word 6.0 file has not been installed. Simply place Disk #1 from the Word 2000 distribution set and install the converter.

'A work around'

If you do not have the distribution disk handy, click Start>Program Files>Accessories and start WordPad. Cut and paste your work from Word 2000 to WordPad and save the file from there. WordPad files seem to be the equivalent of Word 6.0 files.