I also asked this question to a very computer savvy Cousin of mine. He told me about something called Openoffice.org.
OpenOffice is fine if you don't need the more obscure features of Word. It can do a lot more than WordPad, but not as much as Word. Also, the user interface is similar to Word, but different enough to avoid successful "look and feel" lawsuits. That also will mean that there will be a slight (un)learning curve...but it will actually be easier to learn to use OpenOffice than it would Word 2007 if you are used to a prior version of Word. (The various pre-2007 versions of Word all looked more-or-less alike, but 2007 has a very different feel to it. It is much more intuitive to use than the older versions for those just getting started, but it does take some un- and re-learning to folks who have used the prior versions.)
cheers,
Lynn S. M.
