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I'm starting to get multiple MS Word documents sent to me, and I'd like to detect what version of MS word created, or last saved, each doc.

Is there some tool for that?   Or, can I determine such information by looking with a text editor or a binary editor?

I have MS Office suite 2002 and Open office, if that helps.

Sathyajith Bhat
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Brock Adams
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4 Answers4

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If you have an Office Open XML document with the extension .docx (or .xlsx, etc.): The file is a .zip archive, so open with TotalCommander, or WindowsExplorer (copy first as a .zip), or 7zip. Open file 'docProps\app.xml' in the archive and look for <AppVersion> tag:

  • <AppVersion>12.0000</AppVersion> is Office 2007
  • <AppVersion>14.0000</AppVersion> is Office 2010
  • <AppVersion>15.0000</AppVersion> is Office 2013
  • <AppVersion>16.0000</AppVersion> is Office 2016

Found out by saving .docx from Word 2007, Word 2010 and comparing. Later found this info on the web too. For easier googling let me refer to that comment too:

http://word.tips.net/T000601_Determining_Word_Versions_of_Documents.html comment from Daniel Klein on 14 Aug 2012, 19:45

Later versions of Office documents (after Office 2003) are saved as ordinary zip files but with a different extension (e.g. ".docx"). You can view the contents by first making a copy of the file and changing the file extension to ".zip". It will then open in any zip viewer. The relevant information is in ".\docProps\app.xml". Extract this file and open it in a text viewer. At the end of the file is something like <AppVersion>14.0000</AppVersion></Properties> which tells you the file was last saved with (in this case) Office v.14 (Office 2010).

Gregorius
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2

Give trID a try. It looks to be like the file command in *nix.

If that doesn't work try the *nix file command, available in Gnuwin32, or in Cygwin.

Added about Quickview Plus- Another one to try is Quickview Plus. Quickview was a miracle/innovative type program some years back, I don't know if it is still used as much now but it opens loads of extensions. I just tried to open a file and it said MS Word 2000 in the bottom left hand corner. So that program may work for you. It's a 30 day trial that I tried.
http://download.cnet.com/Quick-View-Plus-Standard-Edition/3000-10743_4-10045750.html
http://www.avantstar.com/metro/home/Downloads

Rich Homolka
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barlop
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"Determining Word Versions of Documents" by Allen Wyatt, worked for me.

Basically, he says to open the document with a plain ASCII viewer, like Notepad, and look for key phrases. For example:

The area you are looking for is in a section that is obviously the common document properties (template name, author, document title, etc) and the version information will be displayed nearby. This information will consist of one of the following:

  • Microsoft Word 6.0
  • Microsoft Word 95
  • Microsoft Word 8.0
  • Microsoft Word 9.0
  • Microsoft Word 10.0

etc.

These won't always tell which version created the file, but they can unusually tell which version last edited the file.

Brock Adams
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anonymous
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In windows, they are displayed by different icons. I'm not sure if they do in Linux.

For example, you created a word file in Word2010 and save it as Word2003 file, it will display icon of Word2003 rather than Word2010. It is downward compatible.

ycshao
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