File created from Word 2013 not opening properly in Word 2003

File created from Word 2013 not opening properly in Word 2003

File created from Word 2013 not opening properly in Word 2003

Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Office Word are backward compatible. This means newer versions of the applications like Microsoft Office Word 2013 can open documents created in older or previous versions of the same application. Like for example, Microsoft Office Word 2013 can open Microsoft Office Word documents created with Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office Word 2003.

This is how backward compatibility works. Though you can open old documents in newer applications, you cannot open newer documents in older applications. Like for instance, you cannot open documents created with Microsoft Office Word 2013 using Microsoft Office Word 2003. One reason for this is that Microsoft Office Word 2013, like Microsoft Office Word 2007, saves the document in DOCX format by default (.docx).

Microsoft Office Word 2003 doesn’t support the DOCX format. If you need to open your Microsoft Office Word 2013 document in Microsoft Office Word 2003, open the file again in Microsoft Office Word 2013 and save the document in DOC format (.doc) using the “Save As” option. This will create another copy of your document in DOC format which you can now open in Microsoft Office Word 2003.