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Change Word 2007 default document format network wide
By Michael Pietroforte | 3 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | NextYou probably know that Microsoft Word 2007 is using a new document format. Every time Microsoft makes such a change it usually causes many compatibility problems in the beginning. If one of your users sends a Word file using the new format to someone still using an older Word version, he will not be able to open it. So it might be a good idea to change the default setting of Word 2007 to the Word 97/2003 document format.
Steve Wiseman from Intelliadmin found out which Registry settings have to be changed. So, you could create an ADM or ADMX file to make this change using Group Policy. This option is the best choice for managing a big network.
They have also written a tool which enables you to do same using a graphical user interface. Most Intelliadmin utilities, I tried so far, only allowed me to change a setting for a single computer, but this one can access multiple computers.
Please, check out the Intelliadmin blog for more details.
This option is on the official Office 2007 .adm files..
Also if you’re looking to change the default file formats for all users logging into the machine check out the reg values for office that end in “DefaultExtension” under the tree HKLM\Software\Classes\CLSID\{“Application number”} You can set .xls, .doc, .ppt for all the users logging in to those machines. Pretty good to know if you’re building an image IMO.
Thanks a bunch! The perfect article to my question.