We have users who are still on W7 with Word 2010 and 2013. When they open a template created on a W10 Word 2016 system are there any problems?



I have already seen a problem when I opened the W10 Word 2016 template after downloading it from Drop box. The TOC does not work for contents, exhibits and figures. I am going to try downloading it from an email to see if the same situation occurs. Otherwise, is there a fix for this if needed?

Windows 10/Windows 7 should make no difference.

As far as Word 2016/2010 goes, it depends.
Generally, no problem.

If any features that are not in Word 2010 are used, they will not work in Word 2010. Generally it just becomes text. If saved in Word 2010 format, those features will disappear and not be present when the document is reopened in Word 2016.

Word 2010 and 2016 use a different "document layout engine." Formatting may be a bit different. The narrower your margins, the more likely the problem, IMO.

I see. Well I have more testing in some test environments they are setting up but so far the TOC I updated to 2016 does not work as far as being able to click on any link in the TOC including figures and exhibits. This was originally created in 2010, then I opened it and made changes and updated the TOC, etc. and now when the template is used on the original system that created it, in essence, it acts like you said, just becomes text. So, will see what happens in the environments they create because they are just like what users will be using. My old laptop I have been using to test so far is an upgraded W7 to W10 with Word 2010 only updated as MS updates come along. So if the simulated environments produce the same situation we will have to come up with a workaround.

I tried regenerating the TOC and that seemed to do the trick even when I took it back to 2016 and then back to 2010 so maybe the TOC was corrupt. Who knows? Anyway looks like things will not be a problem.

There is no difference in the TOC field. It is the same as it was in Word 97!