I suspect acrobat reader 7 which was the last thing I installed.
I deleted the normal.dot in the file location mentioned in the tools/options/filelocations tab

>>Compile error in hidden module:AutoExec
>>
>>
>>this error suddenly shows up when I get into or out of word.
>>I deleted normal.dot and the error is still there!
>>
>>what can I do? Short of uninstalling/reinstalling MS Office??
>>
>>
>>Peter
>
>I think AutoExec is a macro that executes automatically when opening Word. It SHOULD be saved in a template file, so I don't know why deleting the NORMAL.DOT file doesn't work. You might do a search for "normal.dot" on your entire hard disk, to see if you didn't get the wrong copy.
>
>This kind of macro may be installed by legitimate programs, which puts "plug-ins" into Word (for instance, a PDF creator, or a translating program), or by a virus.
>
>Perhaps a virus, or the purported legimitate program, put the badly-designed macro right back.