Well there is no 'free version' of MS Word. There is wordpad that ships with Windows Systems but it lacks in functionality. I would try another better, open source option called Openoffice.org.
You find it at believe it or not. Open Office is a complete suite of programs designed as a MS Office replacement. The best part about it is that it is cross platform meaning that you can use it in linux, and on a mac as well. Of course it was first developed for Windows under the name StarOffice.
Anyway, I am not sure when you asked this question of even if it has been answered already but I thought I would provide you with a good alternative. If the machine you send it to is using a newer version of Word than was used in the original document, the newer version will be able to read the older version.
If, however, you are sending the document to a machine with an older version of Word, you will want to first save that document in the version of the machine that will be reading it. Choose 'save as' instead of 'save.'
From the drop-down menu below the file name, choose the version of Word that matches the destination machine. You can also use an online viewer like ajaxdocumentviewer.com and link your word document. So anyone without even word version can then view it from there. Members of the 16-bit Windows family Windows 1.0 Windows 2.0 Windows/286 Windows/386 Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1 Windows 3.11 for Workgroups Members of the 16/32-bit Windows family Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows 98SE Windows ME Members of the NT Windows family Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 4. NT 4 Workstation - Professional desktops / workstations. NT 4 Server - Servers and datacenters Windows 2000. 2000 Professional - Professional desktops / workstations.