Charles: In the screenshot, it appears no document is open (no title on the title bar) and the Home tab is active.

Smarty470: If Word is being started from a desktop shortcut, it's possibly being started with the:
• /a switch, which starts Word and prevents add-ins and global templates (including the Normal template) from being loaded automatically.
• /n switch, which starts a new instance of Word with no document open.
• /safe switch, which starts Word in safe mode.
It's also possible to start Word this way from a macro.

So the first thing you need to tell us is how you're starting Word and, if it's via a shortcut, what the 'Target' properties of that shortcut are.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]