[Jay Freedman]

wrote:
1. What advantages does Microsoft say Word 2007's xml docx has over
Word 95-2003 doc format?

The docx format is really a collection of xml and other files compressed
into a zip file. (If you change the extension from .docx to .zip, you can
open it and see what's inside.) One advantage is that compression makes a
docx file much smaller than the equivalent doc file, saving disk space and
transmission time.

Another advantage is that, with a little understanding of the structure, you
can change things in the document without opening it in Word. For example,
if you have a graphic such as a logo in your document, you could open the
zip file and replace the logo with a different graphic that has the same
filename. Along similar lines, it's possible to create entire documents on a
server without having Word installed there (which never worked well in
previous versions).

2. Is there a way to make Word 2007 saves default to the earlier doc
file type?

To change the default format, go to Office button Word Options Save and
change the "Save files in this format" dropdown.

For any single document, you can always open the Save As dialog and change
the "Save as type" dropdown at the bottom.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
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