Bulleted items or numbered items become misaligned when you save a Word 2007 document in an earlier version of Word

Consider the following scenario. You create a Microsoft Office Word 2007 document (.docx) that contains bulleted items or numbered items. You add a tab stop to the line that contains the bulleted items or the numbered items. Then, you save the document in one of the following versions of Word:

• Microsoft Word 97
• Microsoft Word 2000
• Microsoft Word 2002
• Microsoft Office Word 2003

When you do this, the bulleted items or the numbered items become misaligned.

This behavior occurs because bulleted items and numbered items use an internal tab to align the text with the bullet or with the number in Word 2003 and in earlier versions of Word. However, Word 2007 currently does not use the internal tab.

To work around this behavior, you have to add a tab stop manually for each bulleted item or numbered item. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the Word 2007 document (.docx) that has the bulleted items or the numbered items.
2. Click the bulleted item or the numbered item where you want to add a tab stop.
3. On the Home tab, click Paragraph in the Paragraph group.
4. On the Indents and Spacing tab, type a value for the left indentation. This value should be the same as the value that you use for the hanging indentation.
5. Click Tabs.
6. In the Tabs dialog box, type the value that you used in step 4 in the Tab stop position box, select the Left option, and then click Set.
7. Repeat these steps for other bulleted items or numbered items in the document.

This behavior is by design.

If you want to see the layout of the earlier-version document that contains tab stops for bulleted items or for numbered items in Word 2007, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button
   Collapse this imageExpand this image

   
   , and then click Word Options.
2. Click Advanced.
3. Under Compatibility options for, expand Layout Options, click to select the Don't use hanging indent as tab stop for bullets and numbering check box, and then click OK.