Choosing the Default Format for Saving New Files in Office 2000

When you save a document, worksheet, or presentation in Microsoft Office 2000, the file is saved by default in the Office 97-2000 file format - that is, a format that Office 97, Office 98 for the Macintosh, and Office 2000 can open. If you mostly share files with Office 97 and Office 98 users, then this file format is appropriate for you.

There are situations, however, when you may want to use another format as the default for saving new documents, worksheets, and presentations. For example:

• If your organization is upgrading gradually to Office 2000, you may need to exchange files with Office 95 users.
• If you exchange files often with customers or groups outside your organization, they may have other applications installed on their computers.
• If you publish files on the Internet or your organization's intranet, you may want to save files in Web Page format.

How Users Can Set a Default File Format

You can customize the way Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000, and Microsoft PowerPoint® 2000 save new files.

To change the default format for saving new files

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Do one of the following:

   In Word 2000 and PowerPoint 2000, click the Save tab.

   In Excel 2000, click the Transition tab.

3. Click a file format in the Save Word files as, Save PowerPoint files as, or Save Excel files as box.

After you set the default file format, all new documents, worksheets, and presentations are saved in the default format unless you specify a different format in the Save As dialog box on the File menu when you save a file.

How Administrators Can Set a Default File Format for an Organization

It's possible for an administrator to set a default file format for an entire organization by using Windows® system policies and the Office 2000 policy templates included in the Microsoft Office Resource Kit.

System policies and the Office 2000 policy templates allow you to customize Office to your own specifications and specify how users work. This means that you can control how users across an organization save new files in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

System policies are organized by application in policy templates. The policy templates for Word 2000, Excel 2000, and PowerPoint 2000 have a system policy to change the default value for the Save as type option in the Save As dialog box on the File menu.