>>So I HAD to buy Office2000 to work with all of their stuff.
>
>We've never bought or isntalled Office at ARS. We've never "HAD" to buy any proprietary software. Why didn't you tell your clients to use RTF or HTML? There are free office 2000 reader programs if you really want to view them. Typically, when I get Word documents (wether for resumes or some other type paper work) I either chuck it, reply telling them we don't support proprietary formats like that, or just throw it in a pile that I'll say I'll get to when I feel like going out of my way to read a text document (usually never).
>

Mike,

So when a Fortune 500 Company sends us a $1 million in orders on an Excel spreadsheet, with the EDI orders to follow later, we should tell them we don't support proprietary software? I don't think so! <g>

Office file formats are a defacto standard, like it or not. BTW, the file format for Office 97 & 2000 documents is the same...at least we have never had a problem going between the two.