Copy & paste within word document produces asterisk only

[Maxine001]

I have office 2003 installed on a Vista platform. I have encountered the
following new problems, not previously experienced:

1. I selected a portion of text from an existing word document, and
attempted to paste it elsewhere within the same document, a new word document
and a new window mail. When pasting, an asterisk is the only thing that
pastes.

2. I have tried repeatedly to select images & text from various web pages
and to paste this into a new word document. Again, the same result is the
asterisk.

Please could someone advise/assist asap.

Thanks,
Maxine