It couldn't hurt to contact the manufacturer you purchased your product from,
if nothing else to save on the two free calls. I always thought email
communication was cost free. : ( Wish it were. Through Microsoft Online
they still might have information in the Life Cycle Support section, and they
have a section, where you can verify the authenticity of your product. You
enter you product key, and if it works there, it might come in handy.

"Carol R." wrote:

Thanks. Yes, this is an upgrade. I don't know how to point it at anything.
The manual said to uninstall the old version before doing anything else,
which sounded stupid, but obediently uninstalled. But the product key didn't
work. Another user suggested the old version had to be on my system for the
new one to find its place in my universe, so I reinstalled Word 98. The key
still doesn't work.

Thanks so much for the tip re. the Mac group. That will come in very handy,
if not now then in the future surely. I'll check their archives just in case.