Quote Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul
The best thing is that you can still save in word format if you need to exchange the docs with others.
Word to the wise -- the .doc format is so changeable, and so poorly documented, various versions of Word can't open each others' files. It ain't just a problem with OpenOffice.

For maximum compatibility, save your letters and recipes down in the .rtf format. Yeah, I know, in theory it's proprietary, but in practice it's readable by everything. I've used this trick to help various stymied relatives read each others lolcats jokes.