Getting Word to Open in Correct Format on "New" Context Menu

I use Office XP (esp Word 2002, .doc) on my Win7 machine. I use the Office 2007 Compatability Pack to be compatible with Word 2007/2010's .docx. A little clumsy, but it works...I don't want to change to Open Office, et al.

I set the default font in my Word 2002 as Times New Roman-12pt. Every time Word 2002 opens, I get that. Good.

However, every time I open Word using the "New" context menu, it opens as Word 2007 (.docx) in Courier New-10 pt. How do I:

1--have it open in 2002? [I think it's a reg hack, but I haven't found one that works]

2--lacking that, at least have it open in Times New Roman--12pt? [I use the same procedure with 2007/.docx to set the default font as I did with 2002/.doc, but it doesn't "stick".]

Thnx.......

chriswchrisw said:

.........every time I open Word using the "New" context menu, it opens as Word 2007 (.docx).........

I've not been able to reproduce this.

I started with W7 pro 64bit SP1 in a virtual machine via VirtualBox and I installed Office 2002 (I tested using right-click > New > Microsoft Word Document and I got a 2002 doc as expected.)

Then I installed the Office Compatibility Pack and tested again - I still got a 2002 doc.

I applied all of the Office updates and tested again - I still got a 2002 doc.

I applied the Office Compatibility Pack SP3 and tested again - I still got a 2002 doc.

I restarted between updates and tests - but no joy (or no sadness

What I've not done is to apply all of the OS patches because I'm on a slow connection to the net - but I don't think that would matter to this problem. All I can suggest is to uninstall the Office Compatibility Pack and test. If "New" still makes a docx, then do a repair on Office 2002 (you might need the CD). Worse comes to worse, uninstall Office 2002 and start fresh.

UNI...Very much appreciated, will post you a detailed response later today.

UNI....maybe we can compare registries

My New menu looks like this:



If I go into the ROOTS part of the registry, .doc has these entries:



and its ShellNew shows:



But .DOCX looks different:

The entries for .DOCX are:



and its ShellNew is:



I believe Word.Document 8 is 2002, and 12 is 2007.

Does this give you any clues?

with office 2002 - but before installing the office compatibility pack:




after installing the office compatibility pack:


edit the registry at your own risk...