Research at The University of Toledo : Important Alert About Submitting Through Grants.gov! 

APPLYING TO ALL GRANTS.GOV SUBMISSIONS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE:

• DO NOT attach any documents created in Office 2007 (Word, Excel, etc).  This will cause your proposal to be REJECTED.  [See Details Below]*

APPLYING TO THE NEW GRANTS.GOV APPLICATION PACKAGES THAT USE ADOBE ACROBAT RATHER THAN PureEdge, i.e., PACKETS WITH A “PDF” EXTENSION IN THE FILE NAME

• Use Adobe Reader 8.1.2 ONLY to open these packets.  DO NOT use Adobe Professional or any other Adobe product.  [See Details Below]**

*Microsoft Office (e.g., Word, Excel, etc) Attachments to Grants.Gov Forms Packages.  Since it began accepting proposals years ago, grants.gov has provided application packages that are downloaded, prepared, and then submitted using the PureEdge program. These application packages have an extension of “.xfd”.  The PureEdge program appears in your program list as ICS Viewer 6.0, with this icon: 

** New Adobe Acrobat Grants.Gov Forms.  
Grants.gov is transitioning gradually to use application packages created in Adobe format, i.e., PDF files.  Applicants download the packages from grants.gov, just like PureEdge packages, but complete them using the free Adobe Reader.  Currently there are few such packages available through grants.gov, but if you are applying using one of them:

• DO download and install the latest version of Adobe Reader (v8.1.2).  Previous versions are not compatible with the new forms.
  
• DO NOT open the application package with Adobe Standard or Professional, and don’t let anyone else do it either!  Opening the package with any Adobe product other than Adobe Reader may alter it in a way that cannot be detected until an attempt is made to submit it through grants.gov – at which time an error prevents submission, and the entire package must be constructed all over again!

The vast majority of application packages currently in grants.gov are in PureEdge format. If you are preparing an application in PureEdge, watch out for problems caused by Office 2007!  Specifically, this new version of Word will save documents with a four-letter extension (“.docx” or “.docm”), and application attachments created with these versions are NOT compatible with Grants.Gov and will cause your application to be rejected by Grants.Gov   If you, or a collaborator, have Office 2007 (Word 2007, Excel 2007, etc) on your computer, you MUST save all files in an earlier Office format (e.g., Word 2003) PRIOR to attaching them to your PureEdge application package. 

NOTE: consult agency instructions for information on which types of files (*.doc, *.pdf, etc) are acceptable as attachments.  For example, the NIH only allows pdf attachments. For more information, Click Here