Hmm, good point. The only situation where I've seen the folder change
unexpectedly is when I've been so foolish as to follow a hyperlink to a Web
page from within a document. This seems to reset File Open to my default
folder (or sometimes even My Documents).

Note, however, that the default Save As folder will always be the folder the
document is in. But I gather that it's the File | Open folder that you're
talking about here, and I just can't see how this could change. Even if
there were a FileOpen macro operating here, as you say, it would have to
open to some specific folder; if Word has been closed, it would require a
lot of fancy VBA footwork to make a macro that would remember the last-used
folder.

One other factor that might be relevant: Are you using Word as your Outlook
mail editor? If so, I believe there is always an instance of Word running in
the background while Outlook is open.

--
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.

"Jan G" wrote in message
...
Yes, I've check the file location setting and it is definitely where I
want
it to be. I can't imagine that an autoexec macro would be the "culprit"
because, I would think, that would open a "specific" folder (other than
the
one I want) rather than the last folder accessed. We just had 2003
installed
within the past few days and it has acted this way from the start.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

In that case, I can't think of any reasonable explanation unless there's
an
AutoExec macro changing the folder. I assume you've checked Tools |
Options
| File Locations to make sure that your folder setting has been saved?
There
are a number of problems that can cause Options settings not to be
retained.

--
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.

"Jan G" wrote in message
...
I would be opening either from a shortcut on the desktop or the Quick
Launch
bar.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

Are you opening Word using a shortcut on the desktop, Start menu, or
Quick
Launch bar or are you double-clicking on a document? If the latter,
I
would
expect the Save folder to be the one where that document is located.

--
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.

"Jan G" wrote in message
...
Word 2003 - Even though I have chosen a particular path for the
file
location under tools/options, when I open Word (for the first
time) it
defaults to the last directory I was working in and not the
directory
I
have
chosen as the file location. How can I default to the desired
directory
when
opening Word?