Further to my last post and before anyone wastes any more time on this...
As I suspected, it was a case of IU. When I tried one more time, I realized that although I had downloaded Microsoft Word Viewer, I had forgotten to try opening the file with it.
MW viewer worked! So thanks for the suggestion,
bnt.
Some good came of this because I did end up downloading Open Office, something I'd been meaning to do for awhile ( now I can open OO files from my other computer--if i can ever get it to connect to the Internet again ) and I'll probably need Microsoft Word Viewer again some day.
Thanks again everyone!!!