My next guess would be corrupted registry entries or a corrupted normal.dot
(or possibly a different template is corrupted, but given the symtoms, that
seems less likely).

Have you tried the suggestions shown here yet:

http://www.officearticles.com/word/s...osoft_word.htm

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
"Mark60" wrote in message
...
I can confirm that nothing appears when trying Help - Activate Product. No
box or anything. I tried Help- Detect and Repair which reinstalled Office.
However, the problem remains and I keep getting the same message as first
mentioned.

"Herb Tyson [MVP]" wrote:

From Word's menu, when you choose Help - Activate Product, nothing at all
appears? At the very least, you should see a box that says it's already
been
activated. If nothing at all happens, that suggests a serious
installation
issue. Have you already tried Help - Dectect and Repair?

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
http://www.herbtyson.com
"Mark60" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your suggestion. However, when I tried this earlier (more
than
once), nothing appeared.

"Herb Tyson [MVP]" wrote:

Choose Help - Activate Product. What does it tell you there?

Note that trial versions *do* ship preinstalled on computers (trial
version
of Office Standard came on two laptops we bought this summer), and
expire
(I
believe) something like 90 days after first use.

Non-trial Office goes into limited-functionality mode after 50 uses (I
beleive) if not activated.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
"Mark60" wrote in message
...
I don't think it is a trial version - it came with the computer and
was
reinstalled after a hard disc crash in June. but how would I check
if
it
it a
trial version?

"JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

Is this a trial version of Word? It sounds as tho your time to use
it
for
free is up.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"Mark60" wrote in message
...
"This modification is not allowed because the document is
locked" -
I
keep
getting this message when I try to enter text into new Word 2003
files
or
modify existing ones. I have checked that my copy of Word 2003 is
activated
(nothing happens when I check). I have been using it without
problems
until
now. I would be very grateful for your answers.