Mac Users: Help for the Feeble-Minded, Please.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Keeping in mind the "spirit of the season" as it were, let me ask a couple of "dumb" questions.

I wanted to add MicroSoft Word to my 3-y.o. Mac Pro laptop. ( I think it's 10.8 OS)

My friend told me I must download Mavericks OSX first. ( First of all, is this correct?) Don't worry, she said, it's free. So I went to the online Mac store , located the free download button and clicked it.

That was about 5 hours ago and the screen still says it's "Downloading". There's no indicator to confirm that this is true.... like an icon or window gradually filling up which usually means that something is actually "going on". In this case, the installation of Mavericks OSX. So... should I wait this out?

And how does one put Microsoft Word on this machine?

Does it require a trip to the Mac online store?

A trip to the actual store?

Can I have a disk sent to me?

Is my friend even correct that I need Mavericks first?

Remember... it's Xmas... and be gentle. Think of the baby Jesus... ferchrissakes!