Mac Forums

I just installed the Microsoft Office 2008 for my Mac this morning. I was typing an essay and it x'ed out because it said it had encountered a problem. Needless to say, I lost half my essay. Now when I was trying to open the document in Word, it wouldn't open. I tried rebooting my mac in safe-boot mode and now Word is completely gone. When I tried to open the essay, it opened in what looked like the mac version of notepad.

Can some please tell me how to find the Word program?

I'm new to macs and any help is greatly appreciated