For some reason, Pages (09) will not open ANY word document. I can save a document in .doc format, but when I try to go back an open it, pages says the file can't be opened. Why? They will open in text edit.
Um-m-m-m, no. They are not. It is true that Pages will import Word 1997-2004 format .doc files. Pages also does a beautiful job with Word 2007-2011 .docx documents....
I'm not sure if these to ideas will work but they're worth a shot.
Where you got the notion that a PDF file good substitute for a wordprocessing document is a mystery. Pages accepts PDFs as inserted graphics files. PDF files cannot be opened in Pages like .pages, .doc, or .docx files.