Compatibility - MS Word 2008 for Mac and PC MS Word

I teach online classes, and many of my students have switched to using Word 2007. My Word 2004 couldn't open the .docx files, so I recently upgraded to MS Word 2008 for Mac.
Now, I can open and read all .docx files. But I can't open all the documents my students are submitting. Sometimes I will click on the document icon, and I will get a message that calls it a "binary file." I will be allowed to save it disk, but that doesn't work.
What's a "binary file"? Why is that happening? How can I get around it?
(By the way, it's not a solution to ask students to "save as" a particular type of document. A few will understand and comply, but most haven't a clue/don't care/can't be bothered/whatever.)

some tips pulled up by Google "Word 2008 .docx files"
*Word 2008 12.1 can not open files created by Word 2007 (or maybe any old Word program?) by double-clicking them in the Finder.*
Prior to installing the 12.1 Service Pack, I was able to double-click on any .doc/.docx file generated by Office 2007/SP1 -- and it would open in Word 2008 12.0.1. After installing the 12.1 Service Pack, I can only double-click-open files I've created on my Mac (with any version of Word.)
Any version of WinWord files? They can be opened via the "File --> Open" menu command -- but double-clicking on them will not open the document. I can "save as" the files I have to open with the menu and those will open -- but not the original.
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/office2008/topic4749.html#d15may2008
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/office2008/topic4722.html#d26feb2008
Daniel Bell - .docx documents are really just zip containers. If you receive one that is a folder just re-zip it and change the .zip extension to .docx Provided the folder structure hasn't been tampered with it should then open OK.
[If you select one of the docx files in the Finder and then Get Info (Command-I), you can set the Open With section of the Get Info window to Open with XML Converter and then click Change All to apply that setting to all docx documents. -MacInTouch]
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/leopard/topic4381.html#d01nov2007
http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/convertms_word_2007_docx_files_for_amac.html
Pages, NeoOffice and OpenOffice can open .docx
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/archive/2007/05/15/get-converted.aspx

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