PHP / MSWORD

Hi Folks We have an Intranet at the College, and I'm being asked to have an 'Icon' in the browser, that launches MSWord or Access or whatever. Does anyone know how to do this in PHP ? The office installation is the same on every machine, so I know the paths etc. I've tried it in HTML, but each time I get the option of Downloading it (The whole of MSWord - I don't think so !!) Any help, on what must be a common request, I'd be very grateful. In fact, why is it that I can do more complicated stuff and then get stumped on what appears a trivial matter ? Thanks in advance to all on th list Regards Geoff