can you please answer the questions when asked if not we have no way to know how to answer you. We asked do you have any version of Microsoft office on that computer now??? you can also try downloading open office from here OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 click where it says download now a new page opens and a pop up box with the actual download will come up for you to save to your pc. but I think maybe the easiest way for you might be to just use an online conversion tool like this no need to install any programs just do it online DOCX Convert Office 2007 or this Zamzar.com - Free online file conversion zamzar is my fave. or you can now use Google docs to open them Google Docs

On ebay you can find a device I like called a disk drive 'rack' or carrier. You put it in like a floppy drive, on the other 1/2 you put in any disk drive. Then you can plug in the disk like a floppy and run it anytime you want to look at the drive. This could be something for $14 that would help you to move files from old , hard drive, to a new one $60 for 750gb on amazon. JDMADERA has the disk racks for serial (SATA or parallel) or you can use an external hard drive, or any drive with an external adapter $14. I personally like the reasoning of buying a new drive to put all my files on it. I get a new drive, I copy my old files and test the new drive for a while before I commit to it , and have the chance to sell my old drive while having a backup. Another idea: If many files are text based then zip or RAR them and mail them to yourself. Many mail sites accept 2mb up to 20mb mail attachments. That might handle most of your documents and that way you have them backed up. It's a secondary backup.. you should still have them somewhere else but one site I use has been good to me for 5 years, for free, holding 40mb of stuff. I apoligize if I didn't answer your Q excactly. I'm in a hurry and tried to offer what I could to what I thought I saw in your post.. in a 30 second quick read. Andre

There are many pieces of good, free software available. I easily have a dozen major software programs that I downloaded for free, and a number of them work better than the paid versions I previously used. And just because you pay for something doesn't mean it's problem-free. It's true that paid software from a reliable company is not going to contain a virus, but it might be the target of a virus because it's popular, or it might come with add-ons that you don't want. Whenever I am contemplating downloading some free software that looks good, I usually do a Google search with the name of the product +"review" or +"problem" or +"scam". If you see that a lot of people seem to be happy with it, or that you don't get significant negative hits, then it's probably safe. Even so, save it first and then give it a virus scan before installing.

Compatibility packs? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3 =========== Or download LibreOffice, open the file and save as the MSWord file format of your choice. You will mess up some formatting, but it's no worse than the usual problems of having multiple Word versions used on a single document.