Charles / Paul,

Thanks for responses. I read Charles' first and tried that. Problem solved. This time.

This isn't the first time "buggy" things happened in the documents I frequently work with. They are based on an original document full of tables that someone else created years ago. I've been creating new documents in the same format by opening one of the original author's documents, saving with a new name, and putting new content into the tables. I haven't taken time to create my own original document from scratch which I've been thinking might clear up some of these anomalies. Before I do that I'll continue as I have been and run through the suggestions you both provided in this thread when i encounter weirdness.

Thanks again.

I will mention to IT guy about word 2013 and XP incompatibility but in fact I'm not really sure this is XP. I don't know how to check. I was told it is because of the shape of the windows icon on my desktop toolbar.