Hi Clare,
We have our OPM set up to automatically export documents to VC when we either email and print and you are correct, this then attaches a pdf document into VC.
As I understand it you can change the settings for Open Word in Open Product Settings to untick save pdf versions of documents. This then puts a word document into OPM and you'd just need to check with VC that it can be exported and saved as a word document.
I think we've just got used to pdfs now! We weren't really informed of all the options when we started using Open Word I know we all leave the letter open in Word until we've actually sent it to the client so when checking if we notice a spelling mistake or something I can amend and re-send to OPM.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more info.
Cheers, Kate