@Bronwyn if you need to access them, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, and Google Docs will all load Microsoft Office docs (for free). I don't know if there is a free version of MS Office or how good it is because I stopped using it a long time ago. There are definitely differences that make the things above not 100% compatible with MS Office, but they are 90% on the editing and creating side, not the the reading side.