| P. O. Box 5039 Hilton Head Island, SC 29938 E-Mail: admin@iwn-hhi.org |
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Island Writers' Network
| Saving DOCX files to DOC, RTF, and TXT |
If you are using Office 2007 or Office 2010, saving your documents as "docx" files, recipients that use an older version of
Word will not be able to read your documents. There is a fix that your recipients can download from Microsoft, but you can
make things easier for them by saving the document in a format that their word processor will accept. Many literary
contests and publishers will not accept docx files, nor will the software that converts from Word to the format used for
Kindle.
It’s simple, really. You just need to save your file in a format that others can read. You can do this using the following
steps:
1. Create and edit your manuscript
2. In your command line, at the very top of your screen, click on “File”
3. Click on “Save As”
4. At the very bottom of the “Save As” block, click on any Word option that has *.doc in parentheses—NOT .docx
5. If you can’t decide which Word option to choose, you can also click on “Rich text (*.rtf)” or “Plain text (*.txt)”—
any word processor can read these
6. Type in the file name in the line above “Save as type” just like you normally would
7. Click on the “Save” button
This should create a Word file in a format that any will work for older versions of Word.
Word will not be able to read your documents. There is a fix that your recipients can download from Microsoft, but you can
make things easier for them by saving the document in a format that their word processor will accept. Many literary
contests and publishers will not accept docx files, nor will the software that converts from Word to the format used for
Kindle.
It’s simple, really. You just need to save your file in a format that others can read. You can do this using the following
steps:
1. Create and edit your manuscript
2. In your command line, at the very top of your screen, click on “File”
3. Click on “Save As”
4. At the very bottom of the “Save As” block, click on any Word option that has *.doc in parentheses—NOT .docx
5. If you can’t decide which Word option to choose, you can also click on “Rich text (*.rtf)” or “Plain text (*.txt)”—
any word processor can read these
6. Type in the file name in the line above “Save as type” just like you normally would
7. Click on the “Save” button
This should create a Word file in a format that any will work for older versions of Word.