Enough is enough.
The laptop is old, true enough, but it's failing in software related ways, not in any physical sense. Every day, 10, 20 times, Word crashes - even when it hasn't been opened, and I'm confronted with the prompt to send an error report to Microsoft and recover my documents. The documents I didn't open. There are the countless attempted overwrites of the normal.dot file, detect and repair demands I track down my installation disc (I have, somewhere, but these seems like a lengthy solution to what should be a simple enough problem...).
The hundreds of error reports I've already submitted have not resulted in any helpful Microsoft tips to fix it.
Should I actually attempt to use Word I find myself with time for a coffee and a cigarette while it launches - Photoshop launches quicker.
So I've switched platforms, downloaded Open Office, and while I've only had time to browse the GUI it's looking very promising.
It launches when I click on the icon.
It's easy and intuitive to figure out, and formatting tricks that took forever and seemed impossible in Word are proving surprisingly easy. My fear of learning has been quickly dismissed by how little there is to learn.
So, goodbye Word, I wish I could say it's been nice, but, really, it's been a load of shit.