I have Microsoft Works already on my new system but, although I can type reports etc using the Microsoft Works Word Processing and save them and print them off, no one can open any attachment I send.
Do I need to get Microsoft Office for this which includes Word?

Just download open office for free, just as good

http://why.openoffice.org/

Just save your documents as RTF - Rich Text Format. People will be able to read them.

I always found it staggering that MS Office could not natively read Works documents without you having to put the Works Converter on first.

I've found Open Office to be a bit clunky. Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/) is more user friendly, and it saves carrying a thumb drive when it automatically saves your documents online.

If you're using the latest edition of Office (Office 2007) it has changed the way it saves documents. It saves them as .docx as opposed to .doc which is how they were previously saved. When saving your files if you click save as it will give you the option to save as "word document 97-2007" ( I think those are the numbers if not then it's similar) save it as that and it will be a .doc and people will be able to open your attachments.

This is what I mean - I don't have Office just Microsoft Works and Microsoft Works Word Processing.

You should be able to save as MS Office (.doc) files in Works, people will be able to read whatever you save then.

Just use "Save As" instead of "Save", & there will be a drop-down box where you can specify the file type to save as.

Chances are one will say "Office XP/2003", go for that & pretty much everyone will be happy.

i would have always recommended open office, but having played about with google docs i think its a really good alternative

To Steev.
Have followed your advice and just sent an attachment through to someone!! Thanks a lot - that was what I needed to do!!!

Alcheresearch's answer would've worked too. If it's a simple document you can make them smaller by saving as rtf files, but you may lose the document formatting

Just download OpenOffice.

Works is a waste of time