The cost of all this up-front preparation is substantial. But in many circumstances, it can pay off handsomely. You, of course, will be happier and more productive. But so, eventually, will the content generators themselves be. Management is often much happier too, when efficiency swings upward.
Word is pretty safe, if nothing else because there are third-party filters for it.
Excel is also a reasonably safe choice, for the same reason. PowerPoint isn't as safe. PageMaker and Quark are almost pathological in their unwillingness to play well with other formats. FrameMaker is fabulously friendly, albeit harder to pay for and use. Single source can work with active pages, too, with only a little more work to direct the various pieces to a database.