Hi all I am using MS Office 97. The machine I am using it on presents me with a problem when attempting to open a word or excel document, the problem goes as follows : I kepp getting the message "The document is already open, would you like to make a copy" there is no document "already open" as stated, so I am stuick with this annoying problem. Thanks In Advance Maria

I am theorizing that at one time Word crashed while you were editing a document with Auto-Save/Auto-recover was enabled. Try disabling Auto-recover, Open the document and then re-enable Auto-recover once it is working normally. (Try opening a couple of docs first) Hope this helps otherwise I have no more ideas, Bryan

I should have mentioned to Close Word after disabling Auto-recover before attempting to open other documents. Another idea is to start word without any documents by starting it from Start, Run,"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" /n Hit Ok. If that don't work then try reregistering Word with: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" /r You can copy and paste the line or lines above into the Run box. Hoping something helps. Note: I notice you are using WinXP so check to make sure the path to Winword.exe is the same before running the commands. (right click on the Word shortcut and select properties, find target (If XP has this)) Regards, Bryan