I’m sure it was something like that exactly. They’ve decided to have the editor do all his corrections first, then I’ll import it and do the layout. Once I told them they could save $$ this way, they were quite open to it.
Another problem solved ;-)

Text Exporter (Rorohiko) saved me as none of the text boxes were linked so having the text in one document was extremely helpful.
I didn’t check the import options, but I did go back to my test file and that worked perfectly, all styles came in as expected, even into a blank document. (Just tried messing with the import options, no change).
I use Word 2007 on the PC and my InDesign is on a Mac. I don’t know the version of Word the customer used, so I’m thinking a newer version of Word may be the problem. I did notice that my Helvetica Neue fonts became Helvetica so who knows what happened, operator, software or gremlins.
Oh well, at least it wasn’t a 1000 page book but then I’d have a reason to spend some $$ on the fabulous scripts and plugins there are out there. Thanks for your help!