Recently when I go to open my microsoft word documents I get an error saying that windows can't find that file. Then I click ok and click on the document a second time, this time I get into the file. Hmmm what is going on? Also I did change a normal file to abnormal.dot file now I do it again and I have an abnormal1.dot file as well. I also have a normal file. What do I do with these files that I have change to abnormal or do they just keep piling up as I change the name. Is this not a regular part of maintaining Microsoft word. Please help I would really appreciate any advice.

It sounds like maybe word is crupted. I would uninstall word and then reinstall it. A clean install should take care of it.

Creating abnormal files as part of regular maintenance? No. Unrelated to your expressed problem deleting the Normal.dot file (from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates) can correct problems when creating a new document but has no effect on existing documents. The extension .dot simply is a template for other documents. You can create as many as you like and also name them anything you like such as "Abnormal" or Abnormal1". WHen a document is created with the .dot extension by defult Word will save it in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates. The templates that you create or have created can be deleted if they are of no use to you. Your actual problem is difficult to comprehend as I am unable to determine where or how you are trying to open these documents. From a shortcut, Word's File MRU list or from within Windows Explorer or even all of the above. Without knowing my guess would be that the problem is related to the filing structure of where the documents are stored. I would guess that the path contains special characters. But I don't know without more information. I also think it to be a little premature to reinstall Office at this time. HTH Bryan

The word files that I have to open twice are simply document files in my documents. Nothing fancy or different. Just letters and such. I try to open and I get a message that windows can't locate the file. Then I try again and it opens as usual. More of an aggravation than anything else right now. For five years these same files have been opening with out any problems so this is a recent occurence. I do regular maintenance on this computer but even with Dell's help the other day I couldn't get my ethernet connection to work and Dell thought that I would have to clean my hard drive and reload everything. Turns out it started to work once again without problems. I think the computer may just be getting old and no amount of cleanup is going to get rid of all the corrupt files.. I will uninstall and install work only if I have to.