Hello Jim, I try to avoid Word if I can - I am obliged to use it for 2 or 3 days a month - but I have to say that it does produce a 'recovered' file in the event of an unexpected crash. I am glad of that, though I guess it is simply a copy of the 'last saved' - I am open to correction on that. I am using Word X for Mac Service Release 1. on OS 10.3.5 with 1GB RAM in a 1.3 GHz Cube. I have had three 'kernel panics' since installing OSX, and Word has been open on all three ocassions, and to the best of my memory , was the top window each time. So, I suppose my question, for the time being, would be: Has anyone had a kernel panic when Word wasn't open? David.