Unfortunately
You're correct. MS Word doesn't save or interpret .doc or .docx properly. I've created many documents in LibreOffice which do not work in MS Word properly. Ditto, the opposite. Word doesn't work right. LibreOffice does. Simple solution, get everyone to drop Word and install LibreOffice, after all it's free. Alternate solution, to have Microsoft give away Word for free, at least for students (I believe there is such a program at most colleges, or you could use the online version, I suppose.) Back in 2008, most students could obtain Server 2008 and just add their own GUI, also installing ms Office free.
Now if Windows 8 would just come out with a version where you could add your own GUI right out of the box instead of having to disable the Formerly-known-as-Metro interface in order to use it, and allow you to disable all its features systemwide, to be consistent.
There should also be a way to disable the ribbon in Office straight out of the box, it's horrible and unusable, and you have to install an addon in 2007 versions in order to TYPE to find commands without using it. (Did they include that feature in the next version?)
I use an old copy of Office 2003 if I simply MUST use Windows and Word. This seems to work great, no complaint from clients, etc. yet. No need to have 2007 or above; maybe MS could give away free copies of 2003 to anyone who wants them, to keep the cost to the consumer reasonable (free.) They could also give away free copies of XP, the last MS OS that worked properly.
They'd never have to develop a dang thing ever again that way, so development costs would disappear, and they could begin giving away all their software, and become a not-for-profit business that way, the way all businesses need to be run.
