Hi Brandon

There are some "under the surface" differences in bullets and numbering
between 2000 and 2002/2003, changes to revision marking, and a number of
other new "features" that do affect compatibility. However, bullets applied
from the toolbar rather than via styles may disappear in any version. For
further information see

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/WillMyFormatChange.html

and also the FAQs on bullets and numbering on the same site.

Word can certainly handle 300-500 page technical documents, but you really
must use templates and styles to control the formatting - it's no good
working as you might on letters and ephemeral reports. Because these
documents usually have a long life with many versions and editors, it's also
important to establish and support (with customizations) standard ways of
editing and building the documents - if everyone does their own thing you'll
tie the documents in knots.

As far as choosing a tool for tech docs is concerned, there are of course
many different criteria to consider - not just "features" or personal
familiarity. One of the main reasons for choosing Word may simply be its
ubiquity, especially where non-experts need to edit the documents, though
that can lead to problems of its own. On the other hand, if you have a
dedicated tech doc department, and especially if you need flexible page
layout and typesetting quality, or structured document editing, then
FrameMaker might well be a good choice.

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP