The Problem:

When I start Word, I get a document that already contains texta letter I wrote last month. I have to select the text and delete it before I can start working on my new document. The same thing happens when I click the New Blank Document button on the Standard toolbarthe document I get isn't blank at all.

The Solution:

You've somehow saved your document into Normal.dot, the global template that's always open when Word is running. In theory, it's hard to get text into Normal.dot unintentionally, but it seems to happen surprisingly often.

Choose Tools » Options, click the File Locations tab, click the "User templates" item in the list, and check the Location readout. If the readout is abbreviated to fit into the space, click the Modify button, click the "Look in" drop-down list, and note the full path to the folder. Then close the dialog boxes.

Choose File » Open, navigate to the templates folder, choose "Document templates" in the "Files of type" drop-down list, and open Normal.dot. Delete the offending text, choose File » Save, and then choose File » Close.

Create a Document Based on an Existing Document

The Problem:

I often need to create new documents based on existing documents, but it's not worth creating templates. Copying the relevant parts from one document to another saves some time, but not that much.

The Solution:

In any version of Word, open the document and use File » Save As to save it under a different name or in a different folder. Change the new document as necessary.

Word 2003 and Word XP provide another way to create a document based on an existing document. In Word 2003, choose File » New and click "From existing document" in the New Document task pane; in Word XP, choose File » New and click "Choose document" in the New Document task pane. In the New from Existing Document dialog box, select the document and click the Create New button.