Thanks to all for your generous contributions to this problem.
"Graham Mayor" wrote in message ...
A failure to maintain settings stored in the Word data key in the registry, such as this, is a common problem, especially in Word 2003, though it applies to other versions also. It is caused by a minor corruption in the data key. You can either rename the data key and it *should* go away, or you can force the issue with autoopen/autonew macros in the normal template when it *will* go away.

The command line to add to the macros is

Options.CreateBackup = True

http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm

I suspect it will be similar for Excel.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
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"Abradaxis" wrote in message ...
In Excel, I keep setting the "always create backup" in the "save as" toolsoptions menu, but it keeps on getting erased. How can I automatically produce and keep backups in Word, and Excel on a times basis. Using Windows XP and MS Office Professional components if Office 2000, although I have Office 2007, but have not installed it as yet? Thanks.