It is possible to open old Word documents such as Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 97, etc., documents in the latest version of Word in the Protected View.

Press "Ctrl-O" in Microsoft Word and double-click the DOCM file to open it. Press "File" and then "Save As." Click the "Save as Type" drop-down menu and select "Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc ...

You can open a Microsoft Word document in Pages if you don't have Word on your Mac computer. Here's how to do it.

Basically, Microsoft wants to ensure that you can use the current version of Microsoft to open documents from twenty or even thirty years ago, complete with all features—including WordArt.