The compatibility report is prepared by scanning a document that is currently open within an application to identify compatibility issues that may arise if the document is subsequently accessed using a different computing platform or a different version of the program than that used to create or edit the document. When the document is scanned, each compatibility issue that is detected by comparing the document to a set of predefined compatibility issues is added to a store. The store is then used to create a compatibility report that lists each of the compatibility issues. In addition to listing the compatibility issues, if an issue in the list is selected and highlighted, an explanation of the issue is provided. The user has the option to automatically fix the problem if possible, or can manually address the problem as suggested in the compatibility report.