MS Word 6.0.1 - unwanted conversion to template

[Helmut]

I hope that there's someone out there who can help me solve a problem
that's been keeping me from finishing up the thesis that I need to write
for my university degree...

I use MS Word 6.0.1 as part of Office 4.2.1 on my Macintosh Performa
5200.

Although I'd always chosen to the documents as normal Word documents,
Word apparently saved several portions of my parts of my thesis as
either a template or a macro - instead of the normal "w" found on the
icon of the document, the "infected" documents have an arrow.

My problem is that I can't print these anormal documents on any of the
Windows-based printers at the University here in Vienna. What's more, if
I try to cut-and-paste the text out of the "infected" documents and save
it in a new document (one that I'd checked to make certain that it was
normal) and then save the text in the new document - then the computer
at first saves the document as a normal Word file, and then immediately
changes it into a template/macro (the icon changes in a matter of
seconds from a normal "w" Word icon to an arrow icon).

I've tried everything to alleviate this situation: I reinstalled Word
without any templates or macros, I checked the "options" menu, etc. I've
even spent hours reading the 800+ page MS Word handbook. Nothing that
I've done has helped to avoid this unwanted conversion.

Am I a victim of a virus? Am I missing something obvious?

Please help me if you have any suggestions - send me your advice to
a871...@unet.univie.ac.at

Thanks,
Helmut Gluderer