Word stops responding when you save changes to a mail merge document

When you try to save changes in a mail merge document, Microsoft Word may stop responding (hang). Additionally, you may receive the following error message:

Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Cause

This behavior can occur if the following conditions are true:

In Microsoft Office Word 2003 and in earlier versions of Word, no recently used documents are listed in the New Document task pane .

Note This behavior can also occur when you make changes to the document, exit Word, and then click Yes when you are prompted to save your changes.

Workaround

To work around this issue, do not click Save to save the changes to the document. Instead, to save the changes, follow these steps.

Note If you try to exit Word or to close the document, and if you are prompted to save your changes, click Cancel to return to Word.

In Word 2003 and in earlier versions of Word, click Save As on the File menu.

Status

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.