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Article ID: 937373 - Last Review: May 29, 2007 - Revision: 1.0
The digital signature is lost when you use an earlier version of an Office program to open a file that was saved in a 2007 Office program
Important This article contains information about how to modify the
registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make
sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more
information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the
following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
256986Â
(http://kbalertz.com/Feedback.aspx?kbNumber=256986/
)
Description of the Microsoft Windows registry
SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Office Word 2007, you save a document that has
a digital signature in the
Word 97-2003
Document (*.doc) format. However, when you open the document
in Microsoft Office Word 2003, in Microsoft Word 2002, or in Microsoft Word 2000, the
digital signature is lost.
Note This problem also occurs in Microsoft Office Excel and in Microsoft Office
PowerPoint.
CAUSE
This problem occurs because the digital signature format in Microsoft Office Excel 2007, in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, and in Word 2007 is incompatible with the digital signature format in earlier versions of these programs.
RESOLUTION
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry
incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems
might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot
guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own
risk.
To resolve the problem in Word 2007, configure the
Signature registry
subkey. To do this, follow these steps:
- Exit Word 2007.
- Click Start, click Run,
type regedit, and then click
OK.
- Click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Signatures
Note If the Signature subkey does not exist, you must create it. To do this, follow these steps:
- Right-click Common, point to
New, and then click Key.
- Type Signature, and then press
ENTER.
- Right-click Signature, point to
New, click DWORD Value, and then press
ENTER.
- Right-click the new entry that you created in step 4, and
then click Rename.
- Type XPCompatibleSignatureFormat to name the entry, and then press ENTER.
- Right-click the value, and then
Modify.
- In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type
1 in the Value data box, and then click
OK.
Note This resolution also
resolves the problem in Excel and in PowerPoint.
MORE INFORMATION
If you save a Word 2007 document that has a digital signature in the
Word Document (*.docx) format, you receive the following error message when you open the Word 2007 document in Word 2003:
This file was
created and digitally signed in a newer version of Microsoft Word. The file has
been converted to a format you can open, but the digital signature was
lost.
The procedure that is described in the "Resolution" section does not resolve this problem.
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003
- Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Office Word 2007
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition
| kbtshoot kbprb kbexpertisebeginner KB937373 |
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