Gordon shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.newusers:

tommieK wrote:
How is this comment helping anyone. If you want to push OpenOffice
this is not the way!

Why on earth not? It's a very good solution to the OP's question.

Indeed, I try to be very careful when choosing who and what to reply.

I only mention OOo when it is doing something that MSO cannot, or when
the OP is asking something that is not (legally) possible (like where
can one download MS Office for free). Doing something illegal hurts
Microsofts' interests and is a Bad Thing. I consider this unethical so
I want to prevent people from dong that.
Of course, people switching to OpenOffice hurts MS more than illegal
copies and is comercially a Very Bad Thing. But that is not my problem.