Reading MS Word '.docm' (macro enabled doc) files

So my question is why?

fruhulda wrote:
In the Pages User Guide it is stated:

+Opening a Document from Another Application+
+You can create a new Pages document by importing a document created in another application, such as Microsoft Office 2007 or AppleWorks. Pages can import the following file formats: plain text (.txt), Rich Text Format (.rtf and .rtfd), AppleWorks 6 word processing (.cwk), and Microsoft Word (.doc).+

Some people has also been able to open .docx files

HenryS wrote:

fruhulda wrote:
Also talk to Microsoft and ask them why they don't make their apps more compatible.

Ask the sender to send a document that isn't macro enabled. Pages doesn't do macros.

Clearly. And why not read it as a text file?

But Pages Manual says that depending on the doc being read they do strip macro information from certain imports. So (like M$) why can't the app strip off un-readable macros?

TextEdit has no problem reading this doc as text, coincidentally stripping the macros, and retaining formatting, just like I'd expect Pages to do.

This isn't (in my fuzzy logic) mind at least a M$ problem, rather Pages is flawed. If I look at the info on this doc, it says it is an XML document. I also read the manual (thanks to the poster who says people don't RTFM) about the types of files supposedly compatible in Pages. Clearly the point of the section others partially quoted about the type of files that ARE compatible (.doc, etc.) seems actually directed to show users (and to have them understand) that _ALL documents formats that can be saved in M$ Word2007 are NOT readable in Pages_. Hence, if someone incorrectly formats a document as an XML format of some kind, perhaps as a default, then sends it on, the recipient is left with a dilemma.

As to what happened here, I probably wasn't clear in my rant.