Nothing you've provided so far indicates why either the document or the workbook would need to be saved in a macro-enabled format. Linking doesn't require it. The crashing suggests a faulty Office installation or a corrupt document/workbook.

Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it.

As for the Office installation, have you tried repairing it (via Start > Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features > Microsoft Office (version) > Change > Repair)?

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]