You cannot open a Pack and Go publication in an earlier version of Publisher

Consider the following scenario. You save a Microsoft Publisher publication in a version format that is earlier than the version of Publisher that you are using. Then, you use Pack and Go to pack the publication. When you try to open the unpacked publication in an earlier version of Publisher, you receive the following error message: For example, this problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

1. You save a Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 file as a Microsoft Publisher 2000 file.
2. You use Pack and Go to pack the publication.
3. You try to open the file in Publisher 2000.

When you use Pack and Go, Publisher packs a current version of the publication, regardless of the version of Publisher in which the publication was previously saved.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This behavior is consistent with the way that Publisher packs its files. Publisher cannot retain the earlier-version formatting when it packs a file that was saved in an earlier version format. Before packing the file, Publisher saves the file again as a current Publisher file.