That you do not have the problem in Safe Mode tells me that it is either an Add-In or something in your normal.dotm file that is causing this problem. I doubt it is something in your normal.dotm file.



I assume you mean 32-bit Office rather than 23-bit.

Check the link I gave you. There are two kinds of Add-Ins, templates and .com. In my experience, although either can cause problems, the .com Add-ins seem to come up more often. You need to check the button for it under Add-Ins to look at .com Add-Ins.

Again, I know of no simple way to change which tab comes up on top when you call the navigation pane. It might be possible with a macro, but I do not even know the name of the navigation pane in vba. It doesn't show up in the document recorder and I'm too lazy to do much looking until you have eliminated Add-Ins.

A simple way to run Word with no Add-Ins is to type "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE" /a in the Run window on your Start menu.
Winword.exe /a
may be enough unless you have multiple versions of Word running on your computer.