Data Recovery from Acronis Backup Image

I have been using Acronis True Image Backup version 12, at update level 2009.9796. I am running Windows XP home edition. I plan on getting a newer PC with Windows 7. This is my question: In the event I need to recover some data (like Word files) from my latest backup image out on an external drive, would I be able to just go to the external backup image and copy the word data files over to my new PC that would not have Acronis installed, using copy and paste? I can copy and paste files from my backup image now on my XP machine. My concern is that the backup option I use by default compresses the data. When I do a copy and paste from my backup image now to the machine that has Acronis installed (but not running), the data is ok. The other possible option I may have to use, is to do an Acronis backup without compression, which would make my physical backup image much larger.
Your thoughts would be appreciated. Charles Ranheim