Why not to use Word Documents

I used to find myself in eternal battle with people who insist on sending me files in Microsoft Word format which I don't thing is best way to send information to me as intended. Now I don't care as much but here are arguements I put forward to persuade people to use a more open format.

Also see: RMS article.

Word costs a lot, including when it came built into cost a new computer ('the microsoft tax'). Why do people still spent hundreds of pounds on a word processor when Open Office, AbiWord, or KOffice are available for download at no cost? Can you afford to use Word? Even if is a pirated copy this still support Microsoft's profits.
MS Word only works on MS Windows or MacOS. People who use Linux or Solaris or any other operating system can't use it. Heck it doesn't even work under MS Windows quite a lot. Both Open Office and AbiWord are much more portable to run.
MS Word is proprietary software. You might have noticed that you aren't allowed to copy your MS Word or Office CD and give your friend their own version to use. Technical people might also have noticed that you don't get the source code for the program. If you believe half of what the click through license says there are a good many other things that you can't do as well. Why do we accept such restrictions on our personal freedom? Well users of free software don't. Free software can be copied and changed by whoever has a copy. You are no longer at the mercy of the software vendor. Example of free software word processors are Open Office (unbranded Star Office), AbiWord and KOffice.
Word documents are deliberately hard to read. They are designed so that you can only reliably read them with MS Word itself. Heck even Word has trouble reading and writing all it's past versions of .doc files. Actually MS Word files can be read with some reliability by Open Office and wvware but the only certain way to get your file sent is to use a portable format. Think about it, do you really have a reason not to use plain ASCII or extended ASCII text? If you do then how about HTML or RTF or PDF (which can be written without Acrobat despite what Adobe might want you to think, try Ghostscript) as used by PDFCreator?
Not everyone uses Word. Believe it or not there are choices out there usually cheaper and with more freedoms than MS Word, see those mentioned above. If you don't expect to receive files in KWord format why should I receive them in MS Word format? But actually KWord are moving to a using same format as OpenOffice.
Word files are large. Far larger than they have to be. Try comparing the size of a word file to that of a text file.
They can contain information on past revisions. Someone may well be able to see the text you thought you had deleted as in government iraq dossier.
The format is ever changing. Will you be able to read your own files in 5 years time? Plain ASCII hasn't changed in decades.
Macro viruses. Plain text files can be opened without fear.
They can't be read over the web or on a text console. HTML or text files can be read over the web, to read a MS Word file you have to start up Word. Some people still use text consoles. MS Word files mean I have to copy them to my local computer and start up another program.
By using MS Word files you are supporting Microsoft's monopoly of the desktop computer market. Having one company controlling the pace of progress in computing is a very bad idea. A monopoly will always be bad for the consumers, as an example see the recent changed to the way MS sells Word and other software to businesses - they have to upgrade every two years - it's not yours, you don't own it, all your base are belong to MS. Most people are better off with the alternatives and in the long run we all will be, why not use them?

And you may want to check out what Microsoft ( and Intel ) has in store for you if you continue to support them.

this text mostly from a page done by Jonathan Riddell .

RMS says no-word-attachments

whole chapter of book about MS Word (PDF)

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 License published by the Creative Commons. A copy of the license can be found on the internet via: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sa/1.0/

Permission is also granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found on the internet at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

Why to avoid sending out Word Documents