MS Word 2008 not opening!

I have an old MacBook running the 10.5.8 OS, that came with the MS Office 2008 bundle at purchase. While Word worked fine for a few years, with a 2014.1 Apple bundle update, Word cannot be opened. It displays the message "need product key", which we don't have. Any suggestions?

Previously when Apple was bundling MS Office 2008 with their MacBooks and MacBrook Pro machines (at extra cost) they also sent along the disk and Microsoft package. The Product Key is located inside the disk package usually on a yellow sticker. If you don't have the original product key, you're out of luck and will have to purchase a new copy of Office.

However, there are free alternatives to MS Office: LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and if you have a new Mac your can download the iWork apps for free from Apple.

If I'm not mistaken, Apple at one time did bundle a free trial of Microsoft Office with new Macs, but they haven't done that for quite a few years - and that trial was only functional for a limited time.

Apple did not bundle the full version of Office with the Mac, though you may have purchased it at the same time as your machine - and if so - they would have included the disc and packaging at that time.

At this point, you would need to purchase a Office 2008 if you can't find that product ID, as I don't believe Office 2011 will run on a version of OS X that old. You may also consider using LibreOffice or NeoOffice, both of which are compatible with Microsoft Office files.