Hi,
I am updating a document sent to me as Microsoft word .doc (97-03). They use this older version so files can be acess via difference users with compatible software. I am using libre office writer to edit. The word document has checkboxes in a form.
How can I check boxes using libre?
Is the checkmark symbol wingdings in libre compatibility with their word 2019.
If I save this document back to 97-03 word format would it cause any between the two versions?
These boxes are simple font symbols. They usually mean that this font does not use any special characters at the specified position (Unicode character), but defines this box as a placeholder.
Is the checkmark symbol wingdings in libre compatibility with their word 2019.
This depends entirely on your operating system and the fonts you are using.
If I save this document back to 97-03 word format would it cause any between the two versions?
I don’t think this will work. LibreOffice has probably used a substitute font instead of Windings because Windings is not available in your system.
Windings is a font from Microsoft.
In order to be able to help you better, you should provide information about
which operating system and which LibreOffice version you are using.
And in which file format is the file and in which file format is it saved.
If the Word document is really M$ Word 97-03, it is probably very old and predates the switch of Window$ to Unicode. In this case, the document underwent an internal conversion in present Window$ OS relative to font encoding. In old times, character repertoire were limited to 256 characters while Unicode is presently 17× 64k characters (not all are defined). The upper half of the 256-character sets is not standardised and varies according to OS vendor and font (mainly on the target language: Western European, Eastern European, Cyrillic, … When the switch occurred, this upper half was simply translated into a “neutral” area of Unicode: the Private Use Area which is free for any non-standard use. This means you cannot rely on these characters to display consistently and predictably on all platforms. If you modify any such character with LO Writer, you’ll replace them with standardised glyphs. Then, this may possibly create problems when the document is opened back in Window$.
In general it is not possible to use Word’s form controls in Writer, but there are some rare exceptions.
It is possible to use MS Word’s checkboxes and some other (restricted) form controls in LibreOffice Writer. In some rare cases this can grant a better “interoperability”.
In the attached file you find some examples for checkboxes which can be used in Word and Writer. In Writer you can copy a Word checkbox and it will work. Be aware that the checkboxes don’t appear in the Navigator.
Note: The sample file is derived from a Word document which can cause some unexpected reactions or behaviours.
HTH
SchreibregelnNachDIN5008.odt (15.9 KB)
Thank you for your reply
Because of your note with the attachment I have not opened it. Please could you name the ones that will work with both software’s
Thanks
Please note, that the note by @Grantler means literally: “wherever you derive your files from external documents, e.g. Word documents, there might be some unexpected reactions and behaviors”. You are already in this situation, so your hesitation to open that document on this reason looks curious 
Very funny…
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If you expect other people to do your work, please provide an example of your files. We had here enough topics, where the situation was “slightly different” than described in the original question…
So to work with one of your files can save time and give better answers - if one of us will open your file…
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If you are interested do explore yourself the first step would be to see, if LO can export, than read back what you changed. Then ask one or more of your co-workers, if they can read it.
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Advice: Avoid .doc as you wrote your co-workers use Word2019, better use .docx then, because .doc is an old “foreign” format there too. (In fact you would work with 3 variants then Word2019 internal/LibreOffice internat and .doc-representation in file).
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For some background you may find informations in this (older) thread:
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=83694
I did not understand your comments as offending. Just test the uploaded sample file whether it fits your wishes or not. - Cheers
Thank you all for your comments and recommendations.
This information was useful. Thank you