Vista and XP both handle documents the same way. What would matter would be
the program versions used to create those documents. If you & receiving
individuals are all using the same version of Word, there will be no
problem. If you're all using Word 2003 or earlier, again, there would be
minimal problems, although any Word 2003-specific features would be lost if
a Word 2003 file is edited/saved by someone using an earlier version.
If using Word 2007 and earlier versions, Word 2007 can be instructed to save
any file or all files (by default) in Word 97-2003 format. Even if the files
are in Word 2007 forms, users of Word 20003 through 2003 can open those
files using the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack, which can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en