MS Word 2002 playing up - not a virus?

timestar

I use Word 2002 and in the last month a lot of my files are acting strangely. When I check, they now have Auto Correct Tags turned on (I always have it off) and in Language - the ignore spelling errors is ticked in ghosted grey (I always have it unticked). This means as I edit it ignores spelling errors. I run ESETT (comes up clean) Malware (comes up clean) so I am as sure as can be laptop is clean. Tried Googling the issues and searching MS site but no joy. My only guess is that I have opened a Word file from someone else which has maybe altered something. Any ideas? Thanks.

bluboy

It sounds like your global template (normal.dot) has been changed to the settings of another file. This can happen if you open a new document while another file with different formatting is already open or you make formatting changes to an unusually formatted file.

You can start afresh by either -
opening a new document (close all other Word documents first!) and reset any settings to the one's you want. Close the document (saved or unsaved) and close Word. When you open Word again it should remember the settings you adjusted.
Alternatively, close Word then search your hard drive for 'normal.dot' (it normally resides in something like "C:\Documents and Settings\*USER NAME*\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates") and delete it. Make sure it's the actual file not a shortcut to it. Then when you open Word it will create a new global template (normal.dot) for you and you should be presented with a blank file with basic formatting.

Unfortunately if you modified and saved any files with the dodgy formatting you may also need to manually reset and save those too.