MS Word 97 Info on Global Template?

Would I be correct that your default document (new doc) now has text in it that should not be there when you click new?
If this is a yes then it can be corrected by renaming the normal.dot to .bak and then restart word. it will creat a new blank document for new docs.
if thats not what you mean please clarify.

I don't know what I do to damage the file But when this kind of problem happens it notifies me that the .doc i have worked on is in need to be "recovered". I try this 11-24 months ago when I first ran into the problem. I can remember it clearly, but I cicked "yes". MS-Word maded a copy of the .doc which was unreadable (I think?- lomg time ago )and kept the orignial "read Only" which could not be "save". When I close the "recovered" doc. without "saving" it, a alert pop up stating that the "normal.doc template was damaged "do you want to recover the normal.doc template? I tried that once too. In doing so I remember losing that .doc file total after recovering or saving the normal.doc template Even when I had saved the damage .doc to a floppy before the .doc file when bad, when I open the pre-saved .doc file it was unreadable (why?-not a clue?). So the third time this problem happen to a .doc file and I was give a chose to recover the normal.doc template I click "NO" which maded a alert pop-up come up right away stating the "Global Template" was not damaged asking me if I want to save the new OR recover (the exact wording I recall poorly) the >"Global Template"-YES or NO. I might have choose once "YES" (I don't remember what happen If I choiced yes)or choosed No and clicked cancel or No or ese until I got out of the mess - some how. Well, one time this problem pop up it ugly head again. At that time I customized my WIN98 -Word97 within the Word progams itself. Change(Edit) the icons, added extra button and my the toolbars to my likings and to needs. When I was aked to recover or saved the Global Template again with that same kind of problem - tried to see if saving ot recoving the Global Template would be better. I lost the doc. totally (I think-?recall?)but do remember that the new recover Global Template had losted all of my customized setting to WORD97's default Global Template. So I will not ever choose the "SAVE/Recover"option to the inquire, in order to provent from losing my customized setting I maded to my WORD appt. Now when I have this same problem I cancel/NO/Close whatever until I Windows release the damaged doc. & WORD from the design fix method. When I do this 99% of the time I don't lose the doc. file or my personalize customation to my WORD appt. The MS-Word progams my have problems loading afterwords for a while (2-4 loadings) but the progams recover back to loading correctly so after. What I want to Know is 1) what is happen with WINDOWS & WORD when this stuff is happening. BUT MOTE IMPORTANT - HOW DO I saved my customations I maded to the Global Template in WORD97 to tranfer back into WORD97 if I need to restore my setting to the program? Can this be done?

I am not familiar with Word 97 but in the other versions you can run a repair using the installation program.

Have you tried to repair word?

I agree with Ms. Delicious she has very good advice... I am also thinking that you should make sure you are running the latest service pack for word 97. If i recall correctly there are 3 service releases for Office 97 the most current is SR 2b go to http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/default.aspx choose your version click update list. If your current with all the updates then you might consider saving all your important documents doing an uninstall go into explore and manually delete the office directory then reinstall.