* This is a list
* Here's another item
produces the simple-list.odt file attached with the latest org-mode (from git master). MS Word 2007 (10.0.6683.5002) SP3 can't open it; it says the file cannot be opened because there are problems with it, then says it's corrupt. It then offers to recover the contents of the document; that works and it comes in fine. This is on Windows 7.
I don't have OpenOffice on this machine so can't check it there.
(This is not a big problem for me, but just wanted to let you know.)
--
Gary