After much searching, I discovered the problem was my permissions for the Word default save folder somehow had lost the Full Control and Modify permissions (they were no longer checked). I have no idea how this suddenly happened. Apparently the Microsoft Support person did not suspect that was the problem. He got around it by generating a new User and reinstalling Word while logged on to the new User. This created a new default save folder with the necessary permissions. As soon as I deleted the new User the problem had returned and it took a long time to discover what had mysteriously happened. Don