How to Save a Microsoft Excel 2007 Document as an Earlier Version

Every time the good folks at Microsoft develop a new version of Microsoft Excel, they add new features that are nice to use, but some features that are part of the spreadsheet itself (such as formatting or use of fonts) may not translate well when you send the spreadsheet to someone who has an older version of Microsoft Excel. Other features, like the new menu style, are nice for you as the user but do not affect the spreadsheet itself. With the introduction of Microsoft Excel 2007, there is a whole new issue: the spreadsheets are saved as .xlsx, and older versions of Microsoft Excel are not able to open these files without a compatibility file that can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. While this is not hard to do, if you are sending spreadsheets to clients or someone who does not have very much experience with computers, it is not fair to expect them to do this. Luckily, Microsoft Excel 2007 makes it easy to save your spreadsheet as an earlier version so anyone with any version of Microsoft Excel can open and read them.

Instructions

1. Open the spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel.

2. When you are ready to save your spreadsheet as an earlier version, click on the Office button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. It looks kind of like a multi-colored four-leaf clover.

3. In the resulting menu, roll your mouse over Save As…

4. A menu pane will appear on the right. Choose Microsoft Excel 1997-2003.

5. In the resulting dialogue box, select the correct location for you file, type your file name into the file name box and click Save.

6. Your file will be saved as an .xls file and will be readable by any version of Microsoft Excel since 1997.