Neill,

I am not totally certain about this, but it seems to be more an issue of
the client's side "recognizing" the .doc-extension and starting word.

Possible workarounds via HTML-script to be executed on the client's machine
won't work because of security reasons - and that is better for most cases
(how would you like some rogue HTML-page to overwrite some vital file
used to boot <g>).

If you have a closed circuit of user's, you could add a trusted activeX
to download your document. You could also give them a "special version" of IE
which does the trick. You could give them acess to ftp:// and a ftp:-program. You could give them a small exe which only downloads your .doc. You could perhaps change the mechanisms of linking the .doc-extension to word - but all these ideas demand client trust and/or access.

I am not certain if this could be circumvented by using ftp:// or a special header for http://, but it is worth a look.

HTH

thomas