Menu in Word behaving oddly; items (like the entire contents of the Tools menu) disappearing...

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Hey, I'd be oh-so-grateful if anyone has any idea how I could address
this problem. I'm quite mystified. I'm running MS Word for X on my Mac
(OS 10.4.3), and lately some odd things have begun happening. At first
I was just working around them, but I've decided live my computer life
too much that way (ignoring problems and hoping they go away), so
thought I should look into this before it gets out of control. Items
have been disappearing from the Word menu bar. That is, for instance,
after I had used the "Symbols" option under the "Insert" menu one day,
it disappeared altogether. I had not changed any settings of any sort
and so was mystified. I managed to get it back by fiddling with the
"Customize" option under the "Tools" menu, however today I lost the
entire contents of my "Tools" menu. Instead, a list of my fonts appears
when I select "Tools" which is identical to the "Font" list beside it.
Obviously I can't therefore access the "Customize" option anymore. Has
anyone heard of this sort of thing happening? I can't think what's
causing it. I've never had such troubles before, and am now worried
everything is going to start slowly disappearing! Thanks so very much
to anyone who might be able to shed some light on what is happening
here and how I might address it...

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I would try the standard troubleshooting measures, which you will find
listed here:

http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/TroubleshootingIndex.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Work through them one by one until something helps. If nothing does, post
back. The most common culprit is a corrupted Normal template or damaged
Preferences file.

 

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OK, I'll try this. Thanks very much for your help, I really appreciate
it!