Changing the Desktop Menu "Default File" type for Office 2007

Sorry for the wordy subject; but I'm not sure how to describe that feature.

To describe what I'm talking about:
When a user right-clicks on a basic desktop, they're given a menu w/ the
option to create new files. This is also available in the File menu, when
using explorer.


So... at our company, we have Office 2007 installed. However, we are
attempting to keep our files in the older .doc, .xls, etc. formats until
we're comfortable that most of our vendors are ready to begin exchanging
files in the newer formats. Therefore, we've changed the "Save files in this
format" settings in Office to the older versions.

However, some of our users have been in the habit of creating files using
the desktop file creation method above. When they do this, the file created
is a newer format: xlsx, docx, etcx. Also, since the file is immediately
created at this point, the file type is preserved into the newer format,
unless they distinctively change it. While they don't know (nor probably
care) which type of document they're creating/saving, we'd like to stop this
by forcing some rule or GPO. I've combed over the registry and GPs to change
this setting, but have been unsuccessful.

Any thoughts?

Hi all,

I'm bumping this as I also need an answer to refurbmike's question. We are
also sticking to .doc and .xls for now.

Another side to this problem is that I need to figure out how in the "save
as" menu, how do I make the option that says "word document" respect the
default save format that I have set (in my case .doc)? Right now that option
saves as docx instead of respecting the default format I have chosen.

Thanks!

Ryan

"refurbmike" wrote:

Sorry for the wordy subject; but I'm not sure how to describe that feature.

To describe what I'm talking about:
When a user right-clicks on a basic desktop, they're given a menu w/ the
option to create new files. This is also available in the File menu, when
using explorer.


So... at our company, we have Office 2007 installed. However, we are
attempting to keep our files in the older .doc, .xls, etc. formats until
we're comfortable that most of our vendors are ready to begin exchanging
files in the newer formats. Therefore, we've changed the "Save files in this
format" settings in Office to the older versions.

However, some of our users have been in the habit of creating files using
the desktop file creation method above. When they do this, the file created
is a newer format: xlsx, docx, etcx. Also, since the file is immediately
created at this point, the file type is preserved into the newer format,
unless they distinctively change it. While they don't know (nor probably
care) which type of document they're creating/saving, we'd like to stop this
by forcing some rule or GPO. I've combed over the registry and GPs to change
this setting, but have been unsuccessful.

Any thoughts?