Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Compatibility Report

The Compatibility Report checks to see if the document you’re emailing to your boss will actually open in his ancient copy of Word 97 (for example). The vagaries of document compatibility—even if they were all created in one version of Microsoft Office or another—can be incredibly complex. Sometimes a feature works fine, other times it doesn’t. Sometimes a document just looks and works differently for no apparent reason. The Compatibility Checker makes it simple to figure out what’s going on—and even do something about it.

Note

If you open a document that was created in another program or another version of Office, there probably are compatibility issues. The Toolbox icon on the Standard toolbar throbs when Office detects any incompatibility, even something so minor that you may not notice. Click the icon to open the Toolbox and find out what’s up.

In addition to checking on the current document, you can also utilize this feature to make a document “backward compatible” to someone with an older version of Office. The Compatibility Report warns you if you’re using features that may not work in other versions.

Open the Toolbox, click the wrench icon to open the Compatibility Report panel (or just choose View → Compatibility Report), and proceed as follows:

1. From the “Check compatibility with” pop-up menu, choose the document type with which you want to compare your open document.

   Office checks your document for compatibility. In a few seconds, it displays a list of potential ...