random text appearing in Word 2003 (& PowerPoint)

When I open a Word 2003 document, random text appears at the position of the cursor -- and not just in the body of the text, but in the boxes of menus (like in the File Save dialog or the the Macro Name field box of the Macro > Macros pull-down menu (Alt-F8). (The same thing happens in PowerPoint -- I've not tried Access, Excel, FrontPage, etc. yet.) I cannot say when this began, but some weeks ago I began to notice words appearing in documents. Those words at first just looked like I'd made a mistake -- often the word "and" is inserted at the cursor. Macro security is set on High. Setting it on Very High makes no difference.

No text appears when another application has focus / on top.

I have Office 2003 Pro, XP-Pro. Add-ins to Word are Adobe Acrobat Pro, OfficeReady Professional, ScanSoft OmniPage Pro -- and apparently something else! (In System Information, it still shows "Office 10", though it says the applications aren't started or aren't installed.)

Running:
XP-Pro
1 GB RAM, Intel D-875P mb, P-4 3.02 GHZ
Office 2003 Pro, word, PPT, xcel, access, FP, etc.
Adobe - Acrobat, FrameMaker, Creative Suite

I am behind a firewall, using ZoneAlarm Pro and both Ad-Aware and Spy-Bot S&D with TeaTimer running.

I'm a wannabee .... I'm taking courses in Studio .NET and have it installed, plus PHP and IIS running.

I use three computers, with one hard drive as "courier" (formatted FAT-32) and using Software Pursuit's SureSync to mirror the My Documents folder to the C: drives on whichever of the three I'm using at the time. I'm not sure if this problem occurs on the other two computers.

Suggestions .... please.

The text is generated in the following manner -- a series of dots
appear, backlighted in violet, and then are replaced by the text.

I've just opened Word to a new document -- nothing typed in, not
even a carriage return. I let it run for about 3 minutes and received
the following text insertions:

"And and and a long and lean and what was actually an area and the end and end and an end and an end and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and long and an end and and and and and and and on and on one and an end and and "


Any help sincerely appreciated.

thanks,
Tom Cloud

Currently running applications:

alg.exe Not Available
ati2evxx.exe c:\windows\system32\ati2evxx.exe
ati2evxx.exe c:\windows\system32\ati2evxx.exe
ccapp.exe c:\program files\common files\symantec shared\ccapp.exe
ccevtmgr.exe c:\program files\common files\symantec shared\ccevtmgr.exe
ccsetmgr.exe c:\program files\common files\symantec shared\ccsetmgr.exe
csrss.exe Not Available
ctfmon.exe c:\windows\system32\ctfmon.exe
defwatch.exe c:\program files\symantec antivirus\defwatch.exe
e_s4i2d1.exe c:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\e_s4i2d1.exe
em_exec.exe c:\program files\logitech\mouseware\system\em_exec.exe
eudora.exe c:\documents and settings\username\my documents\email\eudora\eudora.exe
explorer.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe
explorer.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe
helpctr.exe c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\helpctr.exe
helpsvc.exe c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\helpsvc.exe
inetinfo.exe c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\inetinfo.exe
lsass.exe c:\windows\system32\lsass.exe
mailwasher.exe c:\program files\mailwasher pro\mailwasher.exe
mdm.exe c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\vs7debug\mdm.exe
mm_director.exe c:\program files\musicmatch\musicmatch jukebox\mm_director.exe
mmdiag.exe c:\program files\musicmatch\musicmatch jukebox\mmdiag.exe
mmjb.exe c:\program files\musicmatch\musicmatch jukebox\mmjb.exe
netscp.exe c:\program files\netscape\netscape\netscp.exe
offprv10.exe c:\progra~1\common~1\micros~1\msinfo\offprv10.exe
pdsched.exe c:\program files\raxco\perfectdisk\pdsched.exe
rtvscan.exe c:\program files\symantec antivirus\rtvscan.exe
sapisvr.exe c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\speech\sapisvr.exe
services.exe c:\windows\system32\services.exe
smagent.exe c:\program files\analog devices\soundmax\smagent.exe
smax4.exe c:\program files\analog devices\soundmax\smax4.exe
smax4pnp.exe c:\program files\analog devices\soundmax\smax4pnp.exe
smss.exe c:\windows\system32\smss.exe
spiaserv.exe c:\program files\suresync\spiaserv.exe
spoolsv.exe c:\windows\system32\spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe Not Available
svchost.exe c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe
svchost.exe Not Available
svchost.exe Not Available
svchost.exe c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe
system Not Available
system idle process Not Available
tablet.exe c:\windows\system32\tablet.exe
tabuserw.exe c:\program files\wacom\tabuserw.exe
teatimer.exe c:\program files\spybot - search & destroy\teatimer.exe
vptray.exe c:\progra~1\symant~2\vptray.exe
vsmon.exe c:\windows\system32\zonelabs\vsmon.exe
wdfmgr.exe Not Available
winlogon.exe c:\windows\system32\winlogon.exe
wmiprvse.exe Not Available
wmiprvse.exe Not Available
wscntfy.exe c:\windows\system32\wscntfy.exe
zlclient.exe c:\progra~1\zonela~1\zoneal~1\zlclient.exe

 

See if you have speech recognition turned on. If so, turn it off and see if that solves the problem. Not sure where it is in Office 2003 Pro, maybe Tools.

If speech recognition keeps reseting itself everytime you open a new document see here, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823586&Product=off2003

Steve