[Glastonbury] Word function and Open Office

[info at wccl.co.uk]

I was interested to read the following in today's silicon newsletter:

Blunder in Word shows government terror doubts
When will they learn?
http://newsletters.silicon.cneteu.net/t/82284/579699/71380/0/

Quite apart from the interesting info opposition MPs must have seen, if they 
knew how, in the emailed Word doc from Charles Clarke, we Linux users mostly 
- I imagine - can't help encountering Word and I (using Open Office most of 
the time) almost always have to convert to Word when emailing docs. Reading 
this silicon report, I presume (without I admit having had the time so far to 
look for myself but maybe I'd miss it anyway) Open Office has exactly the 
same functions as Word re track changes so that if for example I emailed one 
of you an O.Office doc, you could look at it and discover what changes I had 
made and what original wording I had put in it?

But also, if I write a doc in O.Office and then convert it to Word and email 
it to you, can you open it in Word - or O.Office - and still read my track 
changes? Or do those disappear when the conversion is made to Word from 
O.Office?

I'm told one can easily avoid this trail of track changes by "accepting the 
changes" in Word, but that even then an "expert" can still find the track 
changes. So that leads to another question: Suppose I write a doc - in Word 
or O.Office - then cut and paste just the actual text to a new doc - do I 
transfer all the track changes as well? Or do they remain in the original doc 
only?

It seems to me I ought to know what I'm sending out!!

As a WordPerfect fan who uses O.Office in Linux because I can't at present get 
WordPerfect for Linux - come to think, must check if anything's progressed 
there - tho' O.Office has its own many charms, I'm not very experienced in 
Word. I don't use it unless I have to. Unless I remember wrongly, WordPerfect 
has the same track changes function. I must email myself a much-changed WordP 
doc and see what I can find!

I know, I'm sure I could check this out in due course. But I haven't time 
right now and I am wondering if anyone has the answers right away? 

Thanks for any help. Meantime, what fun if the Govt are sending out to their 
enemies docs that say one thing but in the background say something else 
entirely! 

Ros

Wells Computer Consultants Ltd