You may loose your work from the last time it was saved. Remember to save your work often. In general no, they speak two different languages. However if you use the MAC version of Word, the DFS machine may be able to read it. Another option is to save your file as a text file.
All word processors can read any text file.
The only thing you can do is try it. I've found some software that will automatically download things from the Internet. There are a few pieces of software out there that promise automatic Internet downloads from personalized selections like stock quotes or weather information. Two of the products are called PointCast and BackWeb. These packages run in the background and update while you are doing something else.