I found .openoffice.org and it has only one directory
(no files by themselves), called user.

> Delete it and then open Openoffice and see if this has
> helped resolve the problem. A similar appraoch can be
> used for most settings. Just delete them and start over.

Excellent, thanks. I haven't done it yet, as first I'm
going to take a look at the following directories in user:

autocorr
backup
config
fonts
psprint
Scripts
temp
uno_packages
autotext
basic
database
gallery
registry
store
template
wordbook

and see if I can find something strange. Or at least,
record the contents of each in case it happens again
and make a comparison. Or, in case this turns out to
be a bug that should be reported, so I'll have a
record of what odd thing it was.

Do you have any idea, from among those directories
I listed above that are in my .openoffice.org/user
directory, might be a good place to start looking?
Do you think it might be the type of thing I might
be able to notice?