Word 2004 freezing upon saving

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: intel

Almost every time I save a do***ent in Word2004, word freezes and I have
to force quit it. After that, when I try to re-open my do***ent (which
obviously didn't get saved), finder freezes and I have to force quit that
as well. After all that my icons disappear from my desktop and I have to
force shut down my computer. This happens AT LEAST once a day and is very
frustrating as I lose parts of my do***ent and have to type them again!
Any help please???