Thanks for the advice.
I installed Neooffice. yes I realize that its versions will lag a bit behind openoffice.
Once I accepted the fact that installiing an app on a Mac wont bloat a registry and slow the machine down, I just tried NeoOffice with the thought that if it didnt do what I needed, I'd just install OpenOffice also.
As it is, NeoOffice opened the fairly heavily formatted doc (lots of columns and tables) 100% correctly.
I'll still probably install MS O2k7 in an XP VM for the ultimate in compatability, but for now I'm good.
Like 90% of the people out there, I use about 5% of the functionality of any modern group of office apps.
Thanks again,
Don
p.s. what is the expected release date for the Aqua version of OO?