I have windows vista. how do i get microsoft word on my computer?

Ok, let's start at the beginning. Word which is part of the Microsoft Office suite is a commercial piece of software that is owned by Microsoft. When we "purchase" software we really do not own the program, but instead, we buy a license to use this software. So, you can purchase one of the Microsoft Office suites that suite your needs. For a school student the Teacher/Student is the cheapest of these suites. Next, I have always thought it to be a better idea to purchase the software from a local dealer. That way you have the disk just in case that you ever need to reinstall this software. You can find Microsoft Office for sale at any good computer supply outlet. Office Depot or Staples come to mind, but it can be found at many other dealers. Now, there are alternatives to Microsoft Office that work very well, are free, and will work with Microsoft Word file extensions. But to use this software you need to know a little about computers and file extensions. File extensions are the dot and the three letters that follow a file's name. Microsoft Word by default, saves your work as either a .doc or a .docx. These files will open in Open Office, and can be edited. But to save the file so that it will open on the school's computers that are probably running a new version of word, you need to save your files as one of the following. .doc, .docx, and .rtf. Just about any good word processor has the ability to save a file in just about any file extension that you wish, but you need to know to do this every time you save a file or your need to know how to go into the programs options settings and change the default "Save as" extension to one that works best for you. Open Office can be downloaded from: http://www.openoffice.org

I'm sorry!!! You can't get a free trial forever! Most of the time people pay an extra 200 plus for programs like Word and PowerPoint!! When I was a student, I was able to contact my university's IT department and found out they had a special price for students wanting to buy Microsoft Office. I got everything for about 80 dollars.

Yes, it can be downloaded or purchased on disc

Before you bother with that, try downloading and installing "LibreOffice". LibreOffice (a.k.a. OpenOffice) is just as good or better than Microsoft Office (which includes MS-Word) and LibreOffice is easy to use and completely free. LibreOffice is just a powerful and capable as MSO too. It can read and write MSO file formats so you will be compatible with older "MS-Word" files. LibreOffice. Free. Forever free. http://LibreOffice.org @Ron: OpenOffice is now owned by Oracle® Corporation, via their Sun purchase. LibreOffice is the new fork of OpenOffice and is moving forward.