[Richard]

I am using Win XP Pro with the latest updates (at least those the military
has installed). I am using Word 2003 SP2.

I have a Word file that needs to have relative hyperlinks to its own folder
(the folder can be any name and in any directory) - the folder, and all
files, must be sent to multiple agencies and the files must be hyperlinked in
the base word file. Not knowing the exact directory or file name of the
destination folder the hyperlinks must be relative.

In the Properties pop-up menu I used the Hyperlink Base of "../". It sort
of seems to work - which is the strange part. When I first open the Word
file I can get the hyperlinks to work for about the first 5 minutes. All the
linked files are PDFs; when the hyperlink is clicked an Acrobat reader starts
and loads the file just fine. However, if I wait 5 minutes or so clinking
the hyperlink results in a different action - an IE window is opened and a
default search for the file name is started in MSN search. This happens
every time. It doesn't matted if an IE window is, or has, already been open.
It doesn't matter if I clicked on that particular, or any, hyperlink
previously or not. It doesn't matter if the PDF file is already open (from
an earlier access via the hyperlink) or not. I have tried every variable I
can think of - the behavior is very consistent - except for the time it takes
for the hyperlink to stop working; sometimes it takes 2 min and other times
as long as six or seven min.

Closing the Word file seems to "reset" the behavior since the hyperlinks
will initially work for the first few minutes. Shutting down and rebooting
doesn't change anything. I have tried this with multiple copies of the file
in different folders and directories (all the PDF files included, of course)
- nothing changes. The "problem" is very consistent.

I have run numerous virus scans with nothing to show.

The only variable is that sometimes the Hyperlink Base will show "../\"
instead of "../" - nothing I do to correct the text in the field will work.
Word seems to automatically add the extra "\". However, if I close the file
and reopen it the extra "\" is "usually" gone. Nevertheless, the appearance
(or not) of the extra "\" in the Hyperlink Base field does not affect the
behavior described above.

Sorry this took so long but I wanted to be clear and specific. Any advice
you can give would be greatly appreciated.