You can modify your Word 2008 preferences so that your documents are always saved in the older format.

I just installed Microsoft Office 2008, but now when I create Word and Excel files on my computer, none of my colleagues can open up these files on their computers. Please help!

Microsoft changed the format of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in Office 2008 for Mac (and Office 2007 for Windows), and this new format can’t be natively read by older versions of Microsoft Office. You can tell if a file is in the new format because its file extension ends in the letter x—the new extensions are .docx for Word files, .xlsx for Excel files, and .pptx for PowerPoint files.

However, the people that you’re sharing your files with don’t need to run out and buy the new version of Microsoft Office just to read your newer files. When you save a document in Office 2008, the Save dialog box gives you an option to save your files in 97-2004 format, which should ensure the greatest compatibility for your files because it’s the same file format that has been used on Mac and Windows for the last 11 years, producing DOC, XLS, and PPT files.

If you find yourself changing your Save dialog options a lot, you can set the 97-2004 format as the default. In Word or PowerPoint, this option is located in the Save panel of the program’s preferences, and in Excel, it’s in the Compatibility panel of the preferences.

Alternatively, anybody using Office 2004 can open up Office 2008 files by installing the Open XML File Format Converter (free, www
.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx). And Apple’s TextEdit (free, included with Mac OS X) can read and write DOCX files, while Apple’s iWork ($79, www.apple.com) can recognize DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX files. So your colleagues may already have a solution preinstalled on their computers.