Finder not responding, nor are word or iPhoto

[mirjam]

Hello,

Just as I was saving a normal word document to my usb stick, word froze. This has happened before, so I tried force quitting it. This took a lot longer than normal, and the coloured beach ball kept on spinning. I tried relaunching the Finder, but nothing changed. Then I tried restarting the computer, got my inlog screen and logged on, but then I only got the icons in the dock below and no bar at the top of my screen. All my icons on the desktop have vanished too.

Horrified, I tried re-opening word, but no success. I can still open Safari, and iPhoto opened up, showed my pics but then said it wasn't responding either.

In my pop up window 'Force Quit Applications', the Finder is in red letters, with 'not responding' in brackets. IPhoto was in red too.

I work with Mac OS 10.3.9 (one month away from buying a brand new MacBook) and I have absolutely no idea what to do. Also, I'm not technical at all, so I really could do with a 'for dummies' answer, clearly indicating what to do and what NOT to do next.

Any help would be highly appreciated!

Thank you,

Mirjam