I don't know if this is helpful, or whether you are still checking for a reply after 3 days! But noone else has replied so I thought I'd have a go, though I am not great with computers either but its better than nothing, right? heres what I would suggest.

Also I don't have word 2003 and I cant remember what that one was like.

Download the document to your desktop or documents or wherever rather than trying to open it off the bat from your email, as this ussually brings up trouble . (right click and 'save' i think!) Then when its downloaded, find it in your list of files and then right click on it. There should be an option saying something like 'open with'. Then it might give you a list of programs to choose. Word should be there, but if its not, then you can select 'browse other programs' and try and find it that way.

I hope this is helpful, sorry to have got your hopes up if not!