On the Control Panel is the Default Programs folder. Inside is the file associations. Take a look and see what your described target associations are set as. Having had recent service you may have to reset them to your requirements.

DA

DA, I was going to do a screen shot, can't do that for some reason, could a while back, but I never found anything titled Default Programs at all, nothing Default, only sounds & audio.
Accessory Options
Add Hdwe
Add or Remove
Administrative Tools
Automatic updates
Date & Time
Display
Folder options
Fonts
game Controllers
Intel GMA Driver
Internet options
Java
Keyboard
Mail
Mouse
Nero Burn Rights
Network Connect
Network Setup
Phone and modem
power options
Printers & faxes
Quick Time
Real Tek HD
regional & language options
Scanners & Camera
Scheduled Tasks
Security Center
Sounds & Audio Default
Speech
Systems
Task Bar and Start Menu
User accounts
Windows Card space
Windows Firewall
Wireless network
This is all that is in the control panel area. If you do find something I should do, please word very simply, I am not very computerized for some reason. The language is baffling.
thanks for your time fella, you are always there when someone needs a boost.

These words..."wanting to make word documents for pdf files"...make no sense to me. Are you trying to convert a Word document into PDF format? Are you trying to convert a PDF into a Word document? Or something else?

On the subject of zip files, I don't know what you mean by "open". Zip files are (in my experience) a collection of files-possibly more than one file type-that are "zipped" together for convenience in sending them to their destination. You need a program to "unzip" them (if you don't already have one). The link below is a popular & free program to do just that. After you unzip the files (whatever they are), only then do you use the appropriate program to "open" them.

Here is a link that might be useful: 7-Zip

Shaddy, the Folder Options is the folder where you will find file associations. You are right that there is no Default Programs folder. I'm sure that is what DA meant. Just double click on Folder Options, and you will see a tab marked "File Types". This gives you the various file extensions and the programs that are associated with them.

Azinoh is right about how to unzip a zip file, or as you said, "open" it. 7-zip is a very good program for doing that. But I think XP has its own "unzipper" and if you double click the zipped file, it should open and you can see all the files inside it. At least my XP machine does that.

open(unzip) see I said the words baffle me, I unzip the file, and the pages are there for me to work into a word document, and then into a pdf for ease in sending, but the editing isn't the same anymore, I get the pages in paint now, rather than just the unzipped format. I can click open with Microsoft Picture manager, and still get to the editing part to go to word document, but is another step added and I would like to go back to the short version of editing.
I have all the facilities to unzip files, just am wondering why all of a sudden I have paint program when I want to just plain edit the pages I have.
this is all Greek to me, too much to take in, and as long as I can still edit, tho it takes longer, will stick with what I have, perhaps someday it will rite itself?
You know, every time I run into problems, I kick myself, for ever getting acquainted with a computer, had I known what a hoodo it would be for me to work with, I never would have gotten into this. I enjoy it a great deal, but sometimes it is just overwhelming to me. I am a laborer, not a secretary, and hard to work with this sort of stuff.
Thanks to all for your help, appreciate your interest in my problem, maybe I can find my magic wand and wave it?

"why all of a sudden I have paint program when I want to just plain edit the pages I have. "

Because the file association has been changed.

Go to Windows Explorer and select a picture that you want to edit. Don't double-click it, don't open it...just select it with one mouse click. After you select it, RIGHT-CLICK on it and select PROPERTIES. A new window will open which shows among other things the name of the program currently being used to open that file type...I'm guessing that yours will say PAINT. Click the CHANGE button and select Microsoft Office Picture Manager if that's what you want to use. Click OK and then click APPLY. Does it work the way you want it to now?

azinoh, you are the man, the picture, writing whatever I am wanting to edit, goes to Word, which is where it should be, BUT, the writing isn't readable, lots of little boxes, and looks so foreign, is there something else I have to click?I am not comfy doing some of these things, as you can well guess by my previous postings. Always afraid of doing the wrong thing, and not being able to get back to where it was.