I have some thoughts for you to start off tracking it down. It could be corrupted applications from some spyware/virus/ malware still on your PC. So any additional info you can furnish might help. But these are some thing to check out.
1. There was a bug in Word's handwriting recognition feature that can cause Word to close without warning when you minimize Word. Try removing handwriting recognition in Start | Control Panel | Regional and Language Settings | Language tab | Details | <select Handwriting Recognition> | Remove. If this fixes the problem, and if you need to use handwriting recognition, then you can add it back and it should work okay after you re-add it.
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2. Have you thought about turning on the debugger for Office? if you do it might come up with a solution or error message.
I am assuming yourOffice 2003 (with SP2). That Word will unexpectedly close without warning. No error message, no save attempt.
As suggested here by Kelly might help you..
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.p...800febac4ec39adQUOTE
"What you have is a very poorly-written add-in.
An add-in is a extra code created (generally) by a third party (ie not
Microsoft) to give Word extra functionality. Add-ins are written in code of
one kind or another. Since creating such things is tricky. So while the
developer is working on developing the add-in, problems (aka bugs) can creep
in. And the developer should fix those. One of the tools the developer might
use to help diagnose the cause of problems in his/her code is a de-bugger.
So the debugger is of no use to you. It's only of use to the person who
created the add-in.
A "run-time error" means an error that occurs when the add-in is running. A
well-written add-in doesn't have problems like this and does not take you to
the debugger. So you've got a problem add-in. So you need to identify which
one and get rid of it.
The following article will help you identify your add-ins and show you how
to get rid of them.
How to find out whether any Word Add-ins have been installed
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizatio...nsInstalled.htmand it could actually be one of those spyware things...
but at times people who have even had Norton with it's Office plugin had some problems.
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizatio...nsInstalled.htm do you have Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in ?
How to use Office programs with the Norton AntiVirus Office plug-in
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820*********************************************
3. I do not think this will help you much until you get it pinned down..but
Did you know that you can automatically send an error report to Microsoft
any time an Office 2003 application is hung or not responding (not just
when a crash occurs)?
To use the Microsoft Office Application Recovery tool (Start -> All
Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools -> Microsoft Office
Application Recovery) in Office 2003 to send in an error report whenever
PowerPoint (Word, Excel, etc.) is hung or not responding:
1) Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools ->
Microsoft Office Application Recovery
2) Select "Microsoft Office PowerPoint" from list of applications in dialog
3) Click "End Application..." button.
4) Click on "What data does this report contain?
5) Note down the following information:
* AppName:
* AppVer:
* AppStamp:
* ModName:
* ModVer:
* ModStamp:
* fDebug:
* Offset:
6) Click "Close"
7) Click "Send Error Report
If you post the information noted in step 5 above it might help.