Hi Alice,
If they're working in Office safe mode, then you could have an add in that is conflicting with how Word works, or a damaged
Normal.dot or Normal.dotx template.
You may want to take a look at the add-ins that are in play using
Office Button=>Word Options=>Add-Ins
=================
Yes, I did delete 'Building Blocks.dotx'
And yes, when I start in safe mode, custom themes are available again. It
was a lovely surprise to see them all reappear. But when I reopened Word
normally, they were gone.
Do you know how to get them to reappear in Word in normal mode? >>
--
Bob Buckland ?

MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*