[booley]

I'm late to the party but we share the same concerns\requirements as
funnybroad. I found this entry on the labnol blog and it seems to work.

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To force Compatibility Mode in Word 2007 for even new documents, you may add
the CompatMode key to the registry as explained he

Find the following section in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\W ord\Options

In the right panel, right-click and choose New - DWord. Replace New Value #1
with CompatMode

Double-click CompatMode, and replace the 0 with a 1.

Close the registry, then start Word. All document will be editable in
compatibility mode now. Thanks Herbs on MVP newsgroups.

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