SyncMaster170 0 Junior Poster in Training

hey guys,
So my works app uses a .rdlc file to print a membership card, and looks for a up to date .rdlc file to use as the template. i have VS2010 Pro installed. The other programmer created this program and published it in an earlier version of VS. Heres my issue:
When I copied the previous years(2011) .rdlc file and opened it up in VS to create 2012's .rdlc file, it asks me to convert to 2008 format. I did the conversion because it will not open up if you dont, so I continued to work. Finished working on it, put it in the correct folder so the program could grab the up to date file, it threw an error.
Is there anyway to not convert to 2008 format and still make changes to the .rdlc file? This is rather frustrating but its a real issue.
Somehow the conversion process is screwing up everything. I blame the previous programmer for not properly converting every file associated with the program. He knew we were upgrading to VS2010. Thanks for your time.