I don't work much with Word files, but when I do, the only major “problem” I have is that if you only have Pages and TextEdit installed, .doc files have a generic-looking white icon. It's easy to fix though:
/Applications/TextEdit.app > Show package contents > Contents > Resources Duplicate rtf.icns and rename copy to doc.icns From the Contents folder open Info.plist and into the CFBundleDocumentTypes array append:
<dict>
<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
<array>
<string>doc</string>
</array>
<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
<string>doc.icns</string>
<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
<string>Microsoft Word Document</string>
<key>CFBundleTypeOSTypes</key>
<array>
<string>W8BN</string>
<string>W6BN</string>
</array>
<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
<string>Editor</string>
</dict>
Then flush the LaunchServices cache (this will reset all document/app associations so be prepared to be annoyed):
> cd /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support
> ./lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user