Actually, earlier versions of Word can have problems with this. In fact, an early
problem with Word 97 is that when you saved documents in supposedly Word
95 format, it really saved them in .rtf format instead, and people using Word 95
couldn't always read these files. Microsoft has since provided a fix.

On 20 May 98, about Re: [PCSOFT] Word........., Will Stephenson
<[log in to unmask]> had this to say:

> Hello!
> The best general purpose file format is rich text format (.rtf). Most
> (all?) windows word processing programs can read an rtf file with
> little (note the little, it isn't perfect) loss of formatting.
> HTH


Kris Shapar
____________________________________________________________________
          To doubt everything or to believe everything
          are two equally convenient solutions; both
          dispense with the necessity of reflection.
                              - Jules Henri Poincaré