Microsoft Word Always Opens in Compatibility Mode – How to Resolve it?

by Unknown 3:46 AM 0 comments

Using Microsoft Word Options

One of the possible reasons behind this issue may be the changed default file format for saving new documents in Word, so follow the steps below to restore the default file save format:

First open Microsoft Word and click on File Menu or ORB at the leftmost corner and then click on Word Options.
Next, hit on Save tab and select Word Document (*.docx) from the drop-down list given in “Save files in this format” section

word option save

Finally, apply the changes and restart Word.

Upon opening the word document you can see that Compatibility Mode text in titlebar is gone.
By deleting Default Document Template

If you have upgraded Office suite from an older version in your system instead of a clean install, then the procedure discussed above might not help you resolve the issue because upgrading from previous version might corrupt the default document template file and start opening all new documents in Compatibility Mode. If this is the situation, then, you need to reset the default template for creating new documents and to do so follow the steps given below:

Press Windows + R to open Run dialog, type %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates and hit Enter. This will open Templates folder in Windows Explorer
Find out Normal.dotm file in the folder and delete the file or rename it with any other name

delete template

Now, try open Word. You will find that Word automatically has created a new Normal.dotm file in Templates folder which will solve the issue.
Using Registry Editor

Even after trying the above procedures if the problem still persists, try this Registry tweak to fix the issue:

Press Windows Key + R to open Run dialog box and type in regedit and hit Enter. This opens Registry Editor.
Next, navigate to following key:
for Office 2007: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options
for Office 2010: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Options
for Office 2013: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\Options
In right pane of the window, you can see a DWORD named CompatMode, delete it. If it doesn’t exist, then create a new DWORD and name it CompatMode and assign its value to “0″

compatmode regedit

Now, close Registry Editor and restart Word. You will find that the problem has been solved.