anybody know the Office 2000 user steps to edit a document in a WSS
document library?

we have been struggling to implement sharepoint to replace file
shares for some time now. finally have a document library on a team
site (or so we think) and most of our user base is still office 2k.
we know that it is not seamless, my understanding is they cannot just
select edit from the browser view, but we are under the impression
there is SOME way to check out the document and then download or save
it locally for editing before going back to the sharepoint site and
checking it back in. are we wrong? if not, how do we accomplish this
because we have beat our heads against the wall to no avail.