Suzanne, Charles

Thank you for your comments. I have added the links you provided to my
favorites.

Suzanne, I looked at the WORD MVP FAQ site and found a mechanism to
"fix" a corrupt WORD document (which is my suspicion). .

Here is the material :
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I fix a corrupt document?
If using Word 2000 or Above:
Select File + Save As Web page, quit Word, reopen the htm file and save
it back in Word format - that usually (but not always) gets rid of
corruptions. The HTML/XML format forces Word to completely re-create
the internal structure of the document, either fixing or discarding the
corrupt bits when it does. Best of all, in the case of Word 2000 and
above, almost all of the formatting and page layout is preserved.
Please note: to preserve your formatting, you must select the plain
Save As "Web Page" option
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+


I saved my current document as a webpage, then immediately saved it
back as a .doc
I am now able to insert the index. Don't know if its a fix or a
temporary symptom cure only, but will proceed. "Fixing a potential
corrupt WORD doc" seems to have worked for the moment.

Thank you for your assistance.

jack