I use Pages. It has the ability to read .doc and .docx and write to .doc. (and .rft, etc.)
I like Pages, quite a lot. Also Scrivener, and BBEdit, and TextExpander, iPhoto, iMovie.
Amergina and Medievalist - I have pages and it must be me, but I do not know how to save copies as word docs. I really don't want to buy Office (if it came down to that - I'd probably just buy a super cheap netbook with Office starter).
I have pages, scrivener and openoffice and even in openoffice I cann't save anything as a word doc. It always gives me error messages. My husband and I have had our dual Macs for about four years and everything is relatively perfect except for this one issue I've been having (I won't go into the issue I've been having with the plastic parts by the keyboard and trackpad right now!)
I really do appreciate the responses since I need to figure something out rather quickly.
Yeah, it's an export, rather than a save-as:
1. In Pages, from the File menu, choose Export.
2. In the box that drops down, click on the Word document.
3. Click Next.
The Save As dialog box displays.
4. Choose a location for the document, then click Export.
Voila! Your document is saved as a .doc.
Bean. Out of every word processor I've used on the Mac, Bean has been the best.
http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html