earlier

If possible, use a hyperlink to help users find information elsewhere in the content. If you can't use a link, use earlier, preceding, or previous instead of above to mean earlier in a piece of content.

Use or earlier or previous instead of or lower to refer to all versions of a product that precede a particular release if the statement is accurate for all preceding releases. For example, don't use Windows 10 or earlier unless the statement is accurate for Windows 1.0.

Example
You can open files created in previous versions of Microsoft Visio. (If you can open files in every version of Visio including and previous to the version being discussed.)

See also later