No, nothing custom.  No backgrounds - just plain white. I tried changing the
font color on the Word normal template (actually, there are several of them
and I changed them all from AUTO to BLACK) but the problem still continues.

How could the AUTO setting on font colors become white instead of black?  
When you look at it on the little font color window, the small square of
color next to the Automatic is certainly black.

I'm using Office 2007 (12.0.6212.1000) SP1MSO (12.0.6213.1000)
Part of Microsoft Office Professional 2007
My operating system is XP Pro

I have another problem; please tell if it isn't appropriate to bring it up
here. I'm new to Outlook, having used Outlook Express for many years.  Just
switched over this week to try and divest myself of the color problem.  I
cannot figure out how to export my OE distribution lists into Outlook
contacts (or address book).  In fact, I can't figure out how the Address Book
works at all; there seem to be no tutorials on that on the Microsoft webpage.
I went through the Contacts course.  That's fine.  But my address book and
contacts list are a mess because I tried twice to export OE addresses to
Outlook and now I have duplicates of everybody.  However, I remain unable to
export my multiple specialized distributions lists in OE.  The only list that
will export is the Main Identity Contacts list -- which does not include all
the folks in the distribution lists (separate folders).

Thanks for any help you can give me.