It sounds as if a recent update must have resulted in this problem. It could
be a software update, or perhaps a change to the security settings of a
folder on a server (or both).

Are all your machines updated from a central server? If so, can you find out
what (perhaps from the system administrators) updates have been applied
recently, either to Windows, Office, just Word, or the file system?

FOr software updates, you can try looking in Control Panel|Add or Remove
Programs which may give you info on when particular software was installed.
Certainly in my version of Windows you can check the "Show updates" box to
show quite useful info. on patches etc., and in many cases go straight to
the description of the patch on the MS Web site. Or if you are using
Microsot Windows Update you can open the Windows Update web page and choose
the View Installation History option (but that only gives info. on the stuff
Windows Update has installed).

FWIW DDE still works OK here so it is difficult to pinpoint an obvious
culprit.

Peter Jamieson