Repair made by MS Word: Corrupt / SAVE CUSTOM SETTINGS + FIX THIS!

I had encountered the same problem & it was driving me NUTS! I had made many custom settings in Word & did NOT want to lose them. The solution I finally used was:
(This is supposed to be in outline format.)

4. SAVE CUSTOM OFFICE SETTINGS:

A. CLOSE ALL OFFICE PROGRAMS! (MANDATORY for success)

B. Go to: Start>Programs>Microsoft Office Tools>’Save My Settings Wizard’. The wizard will make an OPS file which contains all your custom settings with very few exceptions. More detailed info: Go to the MS Office site (httpCOLONSLASHSLASH)officeDOTmicrosoftDOTcom)& search for ‘How To Save your Office XP Settings’ Article. Or fix this URL & find it located at httpCOLONSLASHSLASHofficeDOTmicrosoftDOTcomSLASHen-usSLASHhelpSLASHHA010347481033DOTaspx.

C. Save the file this wizard makes to a place where you can find it easily. If you have spent a significant amount of time & effort to customize your Office programs, you might want to copy the OPS file to an external medium such as a USB stick, CD, or even a floppy.

5. FORCE WORD TO MAKE A NEW Normal.dot FILE

A. To avoid losing the original Office normal template: Find Normal.dot & change its file name to “NormalOLD.dot”. Mine is located at C:\Documents and Settings\(Yourcomputer’sname)\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.

B. Start Word. It will automatically create a new Normal.dot file

6. RESTORE YOUR CUSTOM SETTINGS BY RUNNING ‘SAVE MY SETTINGS WIZARD’ AGAIN. (SEE 1., B)
If given a choice, do not restore custom settings for features that you suspect were causing the problem.

Hope this helps someone out there!