Other files (PDFs, and some regular .doc and .docx files) come through fine. <BR><BR>If I open them in a text editor (EditPadPro), the text does come through, after a whole bunch of junk ...

Yes, a .docx file is really a .zip archive (I told you it was compressed). Most of what you find inside are .xml files–another open standard. That experiment will also work on .xlsx and .pptx files.