Is Microsoft "Word" a different program than Microsoft "WordPad"?
 

I'm trying to click on some links in a .doc file that I was sent. The file itself opens automatically with WordPad v5.1 that came with the new laptop I bought just last year but the links aren't functional in WordPad (or the Microsoft Works Wordprocessor).

yes and no, wordpad is a very stripped down text only editor. Word is also a text editor but much more so w/ tons of features that most folks never need.

So if you do lightly formatted text onlt Wordpad is fine, other wise for the hd stuff use Word.

Yes. Microsoft Word is a different program. If Word is installed then you need to reassociate *.doc file extension to Microsoft Word program. However it seems like you just have Wordpad and the .doc extension is linked to that.

Open windows explorer and find your document. Then right click on the file and hit properties. Under the line that says "open with:" and click on that button. Then select MS Word.

Thank you for the information. My laptop only came with WordPad (and the Works word processor) so it looks like I'm going have to by Word.

So what's the cheapest, legal way to buy Microsoft Word? Do I have to buy the whole Microsoft Office Suite? Will older versions of Word still work with documents created with the newest version of Word?

Go on eBay and look for MS Office, can probably get Office 2000 Standard Edition full version (don't get tricked to buying an upgrade version), maybe a Student edition, for $60 if you are patient.

Alternatively, download OpenOffice which is an open-source and free suite, does almost everything that MS Office does (unless you are a serious "power user" or have some very specific needs) and will open and edit .doc files just fine. www.openoffice.org

While you are at it, download Firefox (browser) and Thunderbird (email) and try them out, replace Internet Explorer and Outlook, I like them a lot.

Thanks for the link. I downloaded Open Office and installed "Writer" but most of the links in the document (.doc) I opened didn't work. I found a legitimate retailer that sells Microsoft Office Professional 2003 for only $235 CAD so I'm probably going to have to spring for that.

If all you need is word, then you can get a copy with the Micro$oft works suite for $68 here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832102361

Full and legal copy of word.

One more vote for OpenOffice.org - free, Free, and runs on darn near anything.

our multinational company standardized on it...
anyone still paying for writing text , is basically throwing away money...

it will open pretty much all MS .doc files
just needs the proper file association , just run a full install , with all options to yes ( it's not fat , don't worry , won't eat your harddisk like MS Office does )

oh , and it's V2.0 by now
even better then the V1.0 was

I downloaded the "Office Standard Edition 2003 Trial Software" from Microsoft and opened the Word document (.doc) with Word but the links still don't work. I contacted the company that sent me the document and they said it works fine on their end. Since the trial version of Office 2003 "contains all the functionality of the regular version" could it be that Word doesn't work with my OS which is Tablet PC Edition 2005?

try the word viewer from ms

http://g.msn.com/9SE/1?http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=95e24c87-8732-48d5-8689-ab826e7b8fdf&displaylang=en&&DI=6066&IG=018958cf3f 4a46ecb2461d8cc5dfb9f2&POS=1&CM=WPU&CE=1&CS=AWP&SR =1

Word Viewer 2003 lets you open Word 2003 documents and documents created with all previous versions of Microsoft Word for Windows® and Microsoft Word for Macintosh. In addition to Word document files (.doc), you can also open files saved in the following formats:



Rich Text Format (.rtf)

Text (.txt)

Web Page formats (.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml)

WordPerfect 5.x (.wpd)

WordPerfect 6.x (.doc, .wpd)

Works 6.0 (.wps)

Works 7.0 (.wps)

XML (.xml)




if that don't work, maybe someone here can check the doc for you, dunno how confidential it is ...