I am working on two separate fairly large documents which
have both begun to show signs of corruption although Word
has not stated either are corrupt.  One document is a
heavily edited 26-page one-column list of names which will
become larger and larger as time goes on.  The other
document is a 58-page index which was initially done in
Works Database and transferred to Word for editing.  The
Word Index feature will not be used.

Both documents are always saved on floppies, but when
opened recently, Word 2000 inserted many additional pages
in portions, bolded some names, changed some formatting,
etc.  This problem was "solved" for the index by dividing
it into three separate documents.  I have not worked on it
recently and don't want to touch it again until I have my
plan of "attack" down pat.

Currently the list of names has begun exhibiting the
same "symptoms" as the index did, and before proceeding
any further, I want to make sure I know what I'm doing
with both documents.

First of all, are these documents considered Masters?  
There are no subdocuments included with them (other than
those that Word could have added?).  I want to make sure I
follow the proper instructions when I correct the
problems, so I would really appreciate it if SKS would let
me know if I am reading the correct material or not or
point me in the right direction.  

I also know this has something, and probably everything,
to do with Normal. I have two files that are renamed and
contain <normal.dot>.  One was used for the index and I
think was not attached to the names document.  The other
normal.dot hasn't been used in months.  Can I safely
delete this?  My other Normal(s) are not <.dot>, but just
<Normal>.   Three are Shortcuts and were used recently.  
Can I safely delete these Shortcuts?

I am very scared to make these changes but I know they
must be done.  I was amazed too to read on Microsoft's
FAQs (or something at their site) that saving large
documents to floppies is not recommended.  Microsoft
recommends saving to the hard drive in a folder?  I was
just about ready to order additional RAM for my computer.  
Should I wait to make these changes then, although these
problems have made me lose a lot of time.  I have a  
feeling that Normal could be the root of practically all
my computer problems.  I would appreciate any help given.  
Thank you, and sorry for the length of the post.

If only we could return to the pre-PC days and
simply "reorganize" documents like mine--LOL!