I do site IT support for a manufacturing plant, and I can tell you that sending Word and Excel documents to employees of another company is not common place, especially for sharing tips. I get these sorts of emails all the time and the tips are always contained within the email, included in a PDF, or a link to a page on their company web-site.
Within the organization, this is a different matter. Users within the organization often share Word and Excel files through email.
Sending zipped files on the other hand is common place both inside and outside of the organization. It's also 50%/50% on whether it's spam or not. The users I support forward me emails they received to determine if they were spam or not, and zipped files often accompany the spam emails. On the other hand, they frequently contact me for help when they receive ligitimate emails that contain zipped files or need to send one with a zip file. Often organizations have limits on the size of the emails they can send or receive and the users opt for zipping the files when they exceed those limits. But again, when companies send emails to share tips, I have never seen this.
Side Note: This is just my experience, but anytime a company (any company, not just an IT company) has to contact you first, they aren't very good at what they do and you should avoid them. When a company is good at what they do, the customers will come to them.
One more option, depending on the nature of the privacy needed and the type of content you need to extract, is to use an online conversion service to turn it into a text-only or otherwise less risky format. – Luke Sawczak – 2019-08-21T01:49:08.197
3If your question can be reduced to "Is it common for people to send email attachments that use proprietary formats when plain text or csv can do (despite the transparency of the latter)?", then I'm not sure you'll get an "official" answer but my guess is that such actions are very common, not just with individuals but also governments and organizations. And let's not forget the sending of pdf files, which even if they're untainted, often come with a "requires this software to open it" message. – None – 2013-09-08T02:44:27.547
2Sounds like she should ignore this contact and delete the file. – Ramhound – 2013-09-08T02:56:49.993
@vasa1 I assumed anyone working in even SEO would consider it unprofessional to use proprietary stuff unless it was requested. I even used a similar phrase when speaking to her, that I realize most people use docx and xlsx without even realizing alternatives, but pros? I guess I am searching for input from people in this or similar industries, and also maybe a definite way of finding malicious intent in the files. – fightermagethief – 2013-09-08T03:05:57.367
If this is from someone in the health industry, then they may have HIPPA regulations they need to follow. – spuder – 2013-09-08T06:03:09.510
I personally don't consider SEO to be part of the proper IT community - I've just seen so much crap. If you create a resource thats actually useful, it tends to get attention. Just so many red flags here, to me. – Journeyman Geek – 2013-09-08T06:41:19.347