Thanks, SD, but...
Bin there, dun that (lots!)... there's obviously something going on that I don't understand. I even deleted Office (it's '03, by the way, but I don't think that's significantly different from '02) and reinstalled. But of course, I saved the docs and templates, and the problem was still there. No prob with anything else in the Office suite: use everything except Access, and good as gold.
I'll keep looking.
Jim