I think that the problem is simply that the UF has to be associated with a document. Part of the way VBA works with Word. I have worked around this by closing the user userform when closing a doc, and then opening the next doc and reopening the userform. Everything is working fine now. The problem is generic, not with just this particular macro. My 8 steps to demonstate post above simply identifies the way Word works. I think you can demonstrate this for yourself by opening two or more documents, and then opening any macro with a userform. Select any document other than the one that was open when you opened the userform, then click the userform. The doc that had the focus when you opened the userform will now have focus. I don't think it is an issue associated with Word 2003 alone.

To answer your question, I generally open Word by clicking on its icon in the Win. 7 taskbar. And the UF is invoked by clicking on an icon in a toolbar. John.dot and a bunch of other templates are loaded when Word is opened. This particular userform is just one of multiple macros that can be run either from menu items or from toolbar icons.