While we have choices in our computers, internet providers and email setups, there doesn't seem to be a wide variety of word processing programs. It's been a long time since I've seen a WordPerfect file come through the door. So does everyone use Word? Or are there more choices than that? I asked Gina at Lifehacker, and here's what she said:

I don't have stats to support this but as far as I can tell, Word is the standard format that folks use to exchange editable documents. That doesn't mean you can't use the software of your choice, because all major word processing apps save as a Word .doc file. If you're a poor freelancer who can't afford a Microsoft Office license, OpenOffice is free for download for Mac or PC and saves as Word documents, so others can open the files in Word. The only catch: not all programs handle all of Word's fancy formatting the same way, so if you've got craziness in your document beyond bold, italic and various font sizes (think tables, bullets, embedded images, etc) then use Word to make sure everyon'e seeing your file the same way.

So you do have a choice. Sort of.