Received a Word document in the .docx format from a business contact. Turns out Microsoft has a beta version of a small stand-alone program that converts Office files in this new format to something that can be read by older apps. You drag the .docx file into a little window and the file is converted.

Look for "Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2.1 (Beta)" under downloads at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?pid=Mactopia_Office2004&fid=AB66B5BF-37C3-41BB-945E-784782FC582C#viewer