Having the same problem...Open dialog does not work, not fixed by deleting prefs
A few days ago, I started having the same problem--after using Word 2004 all day, every day (or at least every weekday) since the middle of 2005 when I upgraded to it from the prior version (on an older, pre-Intel G5; the current machine is an 8-core Mac Pro running OS 10.5.7), it suddenly came up with this problem. The very first thing I did was delete the Word preferences file. Then I deleted the Office preferences file. Then I repaired disk permissions. Then I shut down and restarted the machine (as opposed to simply doing a restart). Then, when none of that had any effect, I purchased and installed Word 2008, thinking that somehow the Word software was corrupted in some way. The problem remains. I can open documents from anywhere EXCEPT by using the OPEN menu dialog. When I attempt to open documents from the OPEN menu dialog, I get an infinitely wide screen with nothing on it but blank blue/white rows. None of the menus will work at this point, though I can escape from this dialog and Word will stay up and work normally (other than this issue, of course). ALSO, in a related issue, the FILE LOCATIONS dialog in Preferences does not work either. Same result as with the OPEN dialog if I try to Modify the locations of any of the different file types listed. Can anyone suggest something else to try???