office 2003 student teacher hangup

[Mark]

I'm a missionary in Angola and only get out of this
country once a year. Just got out and purchased mic off
2003 student teacher edition in south africa. returned to
angola and it won't install on my computer. The message I
get is "The specified program requires a newer version of
windows." I have Windows Millenium and the requirement
for the program is Windows Me.
Online help at Microsoft is pretty useless for this
program. You go to Office 2003 Student Teacher website
for installation problems and you get a completely blank
webpage.
You try online help with a tech person and you are asked
for the product code. You go to punch it in and it only
gives you 20 spaces to punch in the code. the problem is
that the product key for office 2003 is 25 spaces.
It's been really frustrating. I purchased Windows ME so
that I could use these more updated programs and after
hundreds of dollars spent, I'm still stuck using Word 97.
If I can't get this to work and end up getting burnt for
the money I spent on this program, I'm going go forget
Word and look elsewhere for a word processing program put
out by someone else next year when I get out of Angola.
Could you guys give me some advice on how I can get this
program going, or give me some advice on someone other
than microsoft that puts out a decent Word processing
program?
-From the jungle

 

[Mercury]

If you had bothered to read the package before you bought Office 2003 you
would have clearly noticed the warning in red type that this version of
Office only operates on Win 2000sp3+ or WinXp. You are wasting your time, if
you are trying to run Office 2003 on Win ME. It will not work. You will have
to return it and see if the retailer will give you an earlier version or you
will have to update your computer to a more modern operating system.