Opening/Saving documents

When a user opens Word 2002, there is no “document” opened, just the frame, toolbars and grey background. The real problem comes when they click on the “Open” icon. Word will quickly flash through the dialog box, into their personal area and will automatically open the first document in that area, without giving them a choice. The only way they can then open a different document is to close and re-open Word, open a blank document first, then open the document they want to work on. Any ideas howI can stop this happening?