For some reason, when I open Word, it doesn’t respond. So I end task and open it again, and it comes up with the message, "Word failed to start correctly last time. Starting Word in Safe Mode will help you correct or isolate a start up problem in order to successfully start the program. Some functionality may be disabled in this mode. Do you want to start in Safe Mode?" I click yes, and it works fine. Does anyone know how to default the "Safe Mode" setting?
Your initial problem may be a corrupted global template. Instead of trying to start in Safe Mode, try this and see if it fixes that.
1.Close all copies of MS Word.
2.In Windows Explorer (My Computer) go to the directory
c:\Documents and Settings\your username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.
(in Word Vista, go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
)
3.The Normal.dot template (in Word 2007, Normal.dotx or Normal.dotm) should be in this directory. Change its name to Normal.dot.bak. (So if this doesn’t work, you can change it back.) If there is a file ~$Normal.dot (note the funny characters at the front), delete it.
4.Try Word again. It should find Normal.dot missing, recreate it, and, hopefully, give you back your functionality.
Good luck.