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If your organization works with several versions of Office, use the Compatibility Checker to make sure your files can be opened in older versions.

  1. Open the file that you want to be compatible with older versions of Office.

  2. Select File > Info.

  3. Select Check for Issues > Check Compatibility.

  4. Review the list of issues found in the compatibility check.

    To open a web browser and find an explanation of an issue, select Help, if available.

    Tip: To have the Office app check for compatibility issues whenever you save the file as an earlier version, select Check compatibility when saving documents.

  5. To return to the document and fix the compatibility issues, select OK.

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Check file compatibility with earlier versions

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