I had a 60-trial of Home and Office on my new laptop, but don't really need it so don't want to shell out to buy it. The other day in a burst of housekeeping enthusiasm I uninstalled it, not realizing that it was still allowing me to open .doc and .pps email attachments, which is all I need. Now I can't open them; should I simply download another trial, is that the simple answer?
Knowing Microsoft, you'll probably only be able to continue your trial, though it's worth a try.
There is something called Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/) written by people who believe in open source software (i.e. free!). It works with all the Microsoft Office appllications, so you would be able to open the files required.