To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (26552 ) 4/8/2002 2:54:38 PM From: Original Mad Dog Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 110653 Laz, It sounds to me like her Word program may be corrupted. Assuming it is properly registered she should have either a reinstall disc from the manufacturer of the PC (if it was originally installed) or the CD's from when she first installed it. There is a backdoor way of starting Word called the /a switch, but it is kind of like messing with the registry....it is not for the faint of heart, and you may be better off going to their tech support people first. For more info go here:microsoft.com Scroll about halfway down and click on "Word 2000 Support Highlights" and then scroll down again until you get here: Start Word with the /a Switch The /a switch is a troubleshooting tool that is used to determine where a problem may exist when you are working with Microsoft Word. When you use the /a switch to start Word, the switch prevents add-ins and global templates from being loaded automatically. The /a switch also locks the setting files; that is, the setting files cannot be read or modified when you use this switch. To start Word with the /a switch, follow these steps: Click Start and then click Run . In the Run dialog box, click Browse . Open the following folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office NOTE : If you installed Word in a different folder, use that path instead. Click the Winword.exe file, and then click Open . You should see a path similar to the following in the Open box: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" Click in the Open box, and move the insertion point to after the closing quotation mark at the end of the path statement. Type a space, and then type /a . The path statement should now look similar to the following: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" /a NOTE : The /a switch must be typed outside of the quotation marks. I am not enough of an expert to tell you how to fix the problem, but that is a back door to opening the program when it won't open. If I were you, I wouldn't mess with it unless you are very confident about your ability to troubleshoot software issues.