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Change to default .doc to create word file

Anonymous
2015-03-10T22:49:36+00:00

I very often create a MS Word Document in folder windows by right clicking > New > Microsoft Word Document.  This action creates a MS Word Document in the folder in .docx format.  I always save in .doc format.  I have to use “Save As” to do this.  I want to set default creation of Microsoft Word Document to .doc format and not .docx format.  How do I do that?

Thank you for your help.

I have MS office professional Plus 2010.

I have a i7 haswell midtower, 15GB memory, 2TB HD & Windows 8 Pro.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-03-12T01:08:26+00:00

    Doug Robbins, thank you for your answer.  I have File>Options>Save>“Save files in this format” set to .doc when I installed office.  It seems MS Word does not behave correctly.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 322.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-03-10T23:42:38+00:00

    File>Options>Save>Save files in this format and select the format in which you want files to be saved by default.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-12T01:08:56+00:00

    Jay Freedman, thank you for your answer.  Thank you for pointing out the consequences of saving in .doc.  I do not use fancy features of MS Word.  I just need compatibility when sharing, spell checker, the most basic formatting and a readable font.  My .doc files are always just text.

    You gave me a few file ideas to play around with.  I will try to use your suggestions to see if I can find a way to save in .doc that is faster than my right click method.

    The script page link made my avast go berserk accusing it of malware.  It would take me quite a while to learn vbs syntax. So I think the script idea will be too much. 

    Thanks again

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  4. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-03-11T00:00:56+00:00

    First. let me point out a couple of serious drawbacks in the way you're creating documents. If none of these matter to you, I'll suggest a workaround at the end of this post.

    • When you save in .doc format, you don't have access to any of the features added to Word after the 2003 version.
    • The .doc format uses somewhere between 50% and 200% more disk space than the .docx format for the same content (.docx is really a .zip file with a different extension, so it's compressed).

    If you're sharing documents with others who have only Word 2003, they can install the Office Compatibility Pack to be able to open and edit .docx files.

    If you still need to save as .doc files, a better solution would be to go to Word's File > Options > Save dialog and set the "Save files in this format" dropdown to "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)". Then always use the File > New command (or Ctrl+N) to create new documents; the first time you save that document, you'll save it directly as a .doc file.

    The difficulty with right clicking in a folder and then New > Word Document is that it bypasses the Normal.dotm template that's the basis for documents created inside the Word program. There is no way, from that right-click menu, to tell Office to create a .doc file. The workaround I can suggest is to create and save a blank .doc file in a folder that you never otherwise save to; then create a batch file or a VBScript (.vbs) file that makes a copy of that blank document in whatever folder you've clicked in. This page shows how to create a command on the right-click menu to run a script.

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