Surprisingly, a lot of people don't understand the 'Word' issue... Each time MicroShaft release a new version, it's pot luck as to wherther older versions can read it - the latest 'docx' incarnation is typical!

However, there is a relatively easy way of saving a Word document in a format most other word processing software can read - and edit... it's called 'Rich Text Format', or .RTF - and is usually a 'Save As' file type option in wordprocessors.

There can be occasional glitches with very old software not fully 'understanding' an RTF, and some 'features' cannot save in an RTF, but they probably wouldn't work in a PDF either.

One problem that is often overlooked is that of machine-specific fonts. What works on one machine won't on another, simply because the font isn't installed.

The old typesetter's rule of thumb was 'never use more than three typefaces (fonts) on the same page. Times New Roman is pretty universal, and is what you'll see in most newspapers and books. A famous newspaper pioneered it... the clue is in the name...