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Last week I received a document that the author had trouble sending. Since then, whenever I switch language usage or insert the date automatically into a document, I get the message "Buffer Overflow" and the document I'm working on has to be closed.
Full virus/malware scans (Panda) have not come up with anything. Spy Bot says my computer is clean. I have run the Office repair feature that comes with my program but the problem is still with me.
Any repair suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks

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As reported, the crash was resolved by removing the custom dictionary. That matches a common pattern: Word/Outlook load the custom dictionary when the proofing engine runs (language switch, AutoDate, spell-check, etc.), and a malformed or corrupt Custom.dic can crash the proofing component. Removing or renaming that file forces Office to recreate a clean dictionary and usually stops the error without reinstalling Office.

Safer, repeatable procedure (avoids accidental data loss):

  • Close Word and Outlook.
  • From Word 2003 use Tools → Options → Spelling & Grammar → Custom Dictionaries to note the active file and its location. Back up that file (copy it to a safe folder) before changing anything.
  • Either remove the broken dictionary from the Custom Dictionaries dialog or rename the file in Explorer (for example add “.old”). Restart Word; the app will recreate a fresh dictionary or allow creation of a new one via the same dialog.
  • To preserve useful words, open the backed-up Custom.dic in Notepad and remove any suspicious lines or odd characters, then save a cleaned copy and add it back via the Custom Dictionaries dialog.

If the problem persists: run Word/Outlook in safe mode to rule out add-ins, and force Word to rebuild its global template by renaming Normal.dot. Example commands:

winword.exe /a
outlook.exe /safe

Also check COM add-ins, install Office updates or proofing tool updates, and, in multilingual setups, watch for encoding/R-to-L text in the custom dictionary — entries with unexpected encoding are a frequent cause of corruption.

Backing up the original .dic before any change is important. The steps above provide a low-risk path to recovery while preserving any legitimately added words.

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additional information I should have included: The program is Microsoft Office Professional, 2003. It is set up to work in English and Hebrew and has been doing so without problems till the event of last week.

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For whatever it may be worth in helping you to help me---I just finished reinstalling my copy of the office suite and the language pack--the problem is still there.

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For any of you who may be following this thread--I just managed to solve it, after days of searching for advice.
I found a teacher on who reported on how she managed to repair the issue---after all the convoluted methods I used that were totally worthless, the solution she reported was straighforward and simple:
Go into C
Double click on Documents and Settings.
Double click on User (This might not be right for everyone... I think it
might depend on how many users you have)
Double click on Application Data
Double click on Microsoft
Double click on Proof
Double click on Custom.Dic
Select all the text in the file. (the shortcut for that is Control-A)
press "Delete"!!
Click "Save".

I just quoted her printed solution as presented, but actually, had to do a little fishing around because my setup wasn't identical to hers. The main point is to delete the Custom.Dic file. Just in case you are afraid to lose it and might want to replace it, you can save it under a different name before deleting.
I don't understand just what the secret of the succes was, but I can say that the name of the person who sent me an email just before the problem developed appeared in the deleted file and I never did anything to try and save it in my dictionary.

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