The "Auto complete" file names shortcut associated with opening a Word document has stopped working.

Stefan - there is a great reason you are an MVP Community Moderator.  Your reply, however brief, gave me the clues I needed to find a solution!

"AutoComplete suggestions in the Open dialog box aren't specific to Word (or Office). My guess is that this is controlled by settings in Windows."

Instead of re-posting my question to a Windows Forum - your response above encouraged me to use a web search engine - with the search words, "enable windows 7 auto complete file name."

The solution links were everywhere, thanks to you correctly saying the auto-complete function in an Open Dialog box is NOT SPECIFIC to Word or Office.

For others who might be reading this thread, here is the solution.  It involves ADDING just a couple of things to the registry.  If you're understandably nervous about modifying the registry, do not do this.  I decided to try it because the fix only involved two lines associated with a non-critical function of Windows.

1) Click Windows 7 Start button, type regedit, and click the regedit.exe shortcut appears atop of Start menu.

2) Locate this Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > AutoComplete

3) In the right-pane, double-click the Append Completion value and change it from "no" to "yes".  Then double-click the AutoSuggest value and also change it from "no" to "yes".

4) If one or both values are not visible in the right-pane - you can easily create them by right clicking the AutoComplete folder in the registry - select "New" and select "String Value" that will then show up in the right-pane as a "REG-SZ" value. Name the missing value accordingly as "AutoSuggest" or "Append Completion".

* Setting "Append Completion" to "yes" will automatically append or complete the file name as you type, presuming the folder you're searching has a file that matches the initial letters you type of the file name.

* Likewise, setting "AutoSuggest" to "yes" will automatically suggest a list of files in the target folder that matches the initial letters you type of the file name.

* This will restore the Auto Complete function in the "Open dialog" bos AND the "Save As" dialog box.

As I say, Stefan, your declaration that Auto Complete suggestions specific to the Open dialog box is not specific to Word - (presumably except in the case of editing an already open document) - and that this shortcut is likely controlled by the Windows settings was spot on.  Thanks again!

AutoComplete suggestions in the Open dialog box aren't specific to Word (or Office). My guess is that this is controlled by settings in Windows. Have you tried asking in a Windows forum?

There is a Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322948/en-us (but note that it was created for an older version of Windows).