Sorry if this has been answered somewhere else I have tried looking but can't seem to find anything...

- is there a simple method of installing a word processor, stats, database etc... program onto a removable sd card or usb stick rather than on my internal ssd, without having to have the whole os installed onto the removable media?

Thanks

http://portableapps.com/
PortableApps won four awards at the Community Choice Awards 2009.
This is exactly what you're looking for.