Thanks for your suggestions. I tried most of those from the FAQ, but none worked. I did include the entire path, but it still didn't work. I'll try it once more with different spacing out of curiosity. Should I assume something was omitted in installation if it continues to give error messages?
I did stumble on the solution to my problem, however. I found that I couldnt use the numeric keypad as numbers and went in search of the cause of that. It wasn't in the hard copy manual but buried in the electronic manual was the explanation and solution for both problems. It seems for this computer (unlike my previous laptops), there are two parts to the numlock activation, one that activates (Fn + F8)and one that locks/unlocks it.(a "lock" key). While most software works (for foreign language characters) with only the activation on, it seems that Word and Excel 97 (unlike earlier versions) require both to be set "on". Fortunately this doesn't interfere with regular typing. I include these details for the use of anyone else who may have had problems with this. Using Fn + Alt + the three number code allows insertion of foreign and special characters at the speed of normal typing.