Can't open Word easily

Whenever I click on an older Word file, one I haven't opened in few months, rather than the file opening, I get the Office 365 page with all the extra stuff and my recent files.  I work a lot so there are a lot of recent files.  I have to go through a ton of them to find the one I clicked on to open.  I can't use the search on top--it just comes up with nothing.  I can't designate Word as my Open With program, have to have the Office program.  This is more than annoying.  It's time consuming, frustrating beyond imagining and I have taken to just working with Wordpad again.  Surely there is a solution?