I forgot to add that I also deleted two add-ins from the registry and the
Global Templates and Addin window.

Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
This most likely indicates that a poorly written add-in is changing your
settings at startup.


"Andrea" wrote in message
...
A Google search indicated old posts in this newsgroup on permanently
disabling the Reading Layout option in Word 2003, but I'm unable to bring
them up through my newsreader, so I'm creating a different thread. I've
gone through the generally suggested solutions: unchecking the Allow box
in the General/Options tab, renaming normal.dot and forcing a new one to
be created, creating an AutoOpen macro in Normal.dot
(Options.AllowReadingMode = False). However, the checkbox kept
returning--and also some of the other Options settings didn't stay saved
(e.g., Automatically Create Drawing Canvas, Recently Used File
List) and Save options (number minutes, etc.). Finally, I deleted the
Word Data Settings registry key, but nothing seems to keep my Options
settings stable. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm using Windows XP
Pro SP2. Windows and Office 2003 are completely updated.