Microsoft Word will not start as e-mail editor

[Dottore]

I have used Microsoft Word as e-mail editor without any problems so far

This afternoon, for reasons I cannot fathom, when I try to write a new
e-mail message or reply to one, I get the 'Starting Word as your e-mail
editor' message and the program just hangs, until I close it through the task
manager 'end task' feature.

When I try to reboot, I get the strange message 'Please close all Word
Documents before shutting down. In Words click exit on file menu' though I
did not open Word or closed it properly.

Anybody came across this problem before ? I am using Microsoft Office XP
with Versions 2002 (10.2627.2625) for both Microsoft Word and Outlook and
have all spyware and anti-virus software required

I can reply to e-mails and write new e-mails by checking off the Use
Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor in the Options dialog of the Tools menu,
but the idea would obviously be to revert to the good old days when
everything worked fine

Thanks for any suggestion to fix this problem

 

[Dottore]

For any one who comes across this problem which I managed to fix myself :

First of all I am pretty confident that one single e-mail to which I tried
to reply triggered the problem. I deleted this item, even from the delete
folder.

Using 'Detect and Repair' under the Help Menu, the problem solved itself but
it required me to put the original Office XP CD-Rom in the CD-Rom Drive in
the process.