To use Microsoft Word as an authoring tool is certainly possible. It is a fairly simple process to create an XSLT to convert XML content into a *.doc or *.rtf format so that it can be brought into Word. For example, if you are working with an XML document instance, you can process that instance into an *.rtf and send it to a reviewer who prefers to edit in Word. The problem happens when that review is returned to you and you wish to transfer those edits back into XML content.
Because users seldom use Microsoft Word properly7, it is rarely possible to convert Microsoft Word files to XML programmatically. Therefore, using Word decreases the productivity of the designers. Word does not operate in a manner consistent with structured documents. Using Word to author XML is like eating soup with a fork: you can do it, but it complicates things.
It is also true that practically every new version of Microsoft Word incorporates a plethora of undocumented changes in the file format. Changes in the format of the resulting Word files invalidates any programmatic automation that has been created. For this reason, most XML content systems use the more stable, but less capable, *.rtf format to transfer files to and from Word.
Many people8 consider that Microsoft Word has no place in an enterprise XML content reuse system. In this view, using word processor technology to author content objects is counter-intuitive, inefficient, and ineffective. Regardless, people resist trading tools, even when they have good reason to do so. Some dedicated XML editors, such as Epic(see below) even include filters to import Word content to XML. Indeed, there has been a significant amount of effort to create robust, reliable conversion tools for making XML extracts from Word documents[3]. The newest generation of blended XML LCMS systems, such as OutStart Evolution, include an impressive amount of bi-directional filtering of content to and from MS-Word.
Some other Microsoft programs, such as PowerPoint, can be used to create content and have very similar advantages and disadvantages to Word. Other Microsoft programs, such as Publisher or Front Page, pose another order of magnitude of difficulty in interoperating with content reuse systems.