This is not a document option. It applies to the application as a whole.
Unchecking both boxes will go a long way.



Other than that keep your eye on the OVR in the status bar. If you double-click on that, it will toggle the setting for overtype. Black means it is checked.


I have learned to really like the newer versions of Word. However it was a painful couple of months learning to use it. The documents are pretty much the same, but the placement of commands and options takes getting used to.


You can get a free trial of Office 365. I would recommend doing it on a new computer because:

1) it will not work on anything lower than Windows 7 and soon that will change to Windows 10.
2) it is a fairly intrusive installation and will try to remove any prior versions of Office. It is simpler to try it out and then if you don't like it uninstall and then reinstall your Office 2003. Note Office 2003 is not approved for use on Windows 10 but Word and Excel do work (not sure about Outlook, but I would not want to use Outlook 2003 anyway.)


Given that at some point you would probably want a one-time purchase rather than subscription version, you can look online for retailers selling Office 2016 or 2013. Because Office 2019 has already been announced for release this fall, there are some very hefty discounts being offered. The free 30-day trial, though, is only available for the subscription version. It comes pre-installed on many new computers.