If you right-click on a .dot file, which menu item is in bold--New or Open?
If it's open, then the file association needs to be repaired. The easiest
way to do this is to reregister Word. Click Start | Run and type

winword /r

then press Enter.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Judy Haynes" wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was surprised when I double-clicked on a template in Windows
Explorer and Word opened the .DOT, instead of the new document I expected.
I'm running Windows XP and Word 2003, but the same thing happened on a MAC
with a template I had created. Any ideas why?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
When you double-click on a .dot file, you always get a new document
because
the default action for .dot files is New.