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Word 2000 is designed to seamlessly open Word 97 docs, and generally, it
does. In fact, in the five or six months that I have been using Word 2000, I
have had zero problems opening older files created in 97.
However, as you have discovered, there are some problems going from 2000 to
97. First, be sure to read the information about compatibility issues at the
MS web site. I don't have the address here, but as I recall, it's in the
knowledge-base.
I don't know if you've tried this yet, but be sure you don't have any Word
2000 specific features (that aren't supported by Word 97) turned on - the
list of these is in the word help file. The steps are:
>>Turn on or off features not supported by Word 97
>>You must have a document open in Microsoft Word to follow these steps.
>>On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Save tab.
>>Select the Disable features not supported by Word 97 check box.
>>Word 2000 displays a list of the features it will convert so that the
document can be used in Word 97.
If you poke around in the help, you'll find a list of how the disabled
features appear in Word 97.
I have had similar problems with headers, etc. One thing to try is saving in
another format, then opening in 97. Unfortunately, MS didn't include an
"export filter" in Word 2000 for the 97 format, since they were _supposed_
to be completely compatible. Ha Ha.
