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Tony Jollans Tony Jollans is offline
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Default WORD '07 BUG: COMPATIBILITY MODE FOR NEW DOCUMENTS

A couple of points to ponder ...

Firstly I have to wonder, if you're rolling this out to 20K users, why you
want compatibility. How many users will you have who remain on an earlier
version?

Secondly, I think you need to be aware that, even in compatibility mode,
your users will still see compatibility prompts in some circumstances and
may also see other effects of constantly saving down-level. They may need
more training to work this way than they would to use the product in
'normal' mode and I think their experience of using the product will be less
enjoyable, and may be more confusing, in compatibility mode.

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"funnybroad" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your response, and you're right... for one person, especially
an
experienced user, it's minor

But multiply it by the 20,000+ not-so-experienced users we have to roll
this
out to. Then it's not so minor.

The users will have to be trained that 1) getting into compatibility mode
for new docs in Word is different than Excel and PowerPoint (source of
confusion) 2) they need to immediately save a new document in Word before
editing it (awkward) -or- try to remember what features are not 100%
feature
refresh (there's a long list) -or- try to explain the gruesome details of
handling the compatibility prompts when they do finally save the document.

Call me crazy, but I think user experience for our users is important, and
a
lot of confusion can be avoided if Microsoft could just make their
software
behave like it's described in their resource kit.

The benefit I'm hoping for is this: EVIDENCE. Unless I can demonstrate
to
our Microsoft TAM that this issue is a problem with the software, and not
with something we're doing wrong with our installation of it, they will
charge us money to open a "ticket".

So I try to gather information from various sources (including discussion
groups) as 'evidence'.

Thanks again Tony, I appreciate it!

"Tony Jollans" wrote:

As I've said elsewhere, Compatibility mode isn't really very useful and
most
people think there are more important issues in need of attention in Word
2007. At best, your problem is a very minor one and, although I can't
speak
for Microsoft, I doubt you will get what you consider a satisfactory
resolution even if you pay for it; I would think that the best you could
expect would be a change to the web page so that it tells you what you
already know.

What benefit were you hoping to get out of this?

--
Enjoy,
Tony

"funnybroad" wrote in message
...
PUHLEEZE get someone within Microsoft to acknowledge the problem and
either
give me a solution, or a timeframe when I can expect one.

"Dian D. Chapman, MVP" wrote:

PHULEEZE don't post the same question to multiple groups!



Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman

Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
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On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 13:32:02 -0700, funnybroad
wrote:

According to the O2k7 Resource kit (specific page link below), if you
set
your default save format to the 97-2003 formats, when you create a
new
document in Word, it should automatically open the blank document in
[Compatibility Mode]. I've tried two completely different
installations
(one
at work with one set of media, and another at home with a different
set
of
media), and this isn't the case. I have to first save the new blank
document
before [Compatibility Mode] kicks-in.

Excel and PowerPoint behave as described in the res. kit. New
workbooks
and
presentations open up automatically in compatibility mode if you've
set
the
default format to the 97-2003 formats.

Link to page in Resource Kit:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office...3.mspx?pf=true