Word 2003 Crashes When Inserting Bullets or Numbers

When weird things happen in Word, we're taught that re-creating your normal.dot file will refresh and start anew. But if you find Word 2003 crashing whenever you press that bullets button, the normal.dot trick won't work. These settings are kept in the registry out of the reaches of normal.dot.

This is the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\List Gallery Presets

If you know how to navigate the registry, then just delete the "List Gallery Presets" key as indicated above. If you're not familiar with the registry, then do the following:

1.  Copy the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\List Gallery Presets]

2.  Open Notepad and paste the above lines. NOTE: There are three lines, including the blank line in between.

3.  Save the file as "Bullets.reg" -- meaning, make sure the file does nto end in ".txt" -- to your desktop.

4.  Find "Bullets.reg" on your desktop and double-click it. Click "Yes" to verify you want to add it to the registry and "OK" to confirm.

There! Restart Word and all should be well. If you still have trouble, try rebooting your system.