I will try to do the Repair as you have suggested, but it will be til Wednesday 7/23/15.

We bought the computer directly from them Dell in 2012, I learned today. I'm hoping we can recover the license key and/or disk from them and use the earlier version of MS Office if the 2013 license is un(re)obtainable.

If the Repair doesn't work, I hope there is a way to reinstall whichever version was on there on the Dell before all this. Is that a reasonable plan to have in mind?

We have a valid license for Publisher and a desire to use that software on this machine. I'm not currently aware whether the Publisher software requires an Office license? I hope to get an Office version running on there that will get it to go. Also I'm unaware what previous version of Office would have been on a Dell bought in 2012, or whether it would still be usable presently; but I can look those up.

Sorry if I have been obstinate. Thank you for helping.