MS Word erases my clipboard!

Hi,

This has happened for quite some time (even before I upgraded to SR) and it's driving me crazy! Whenever I copy some text from a webpage (I use IE), then open MS Word, and attempt to Paste it, there's nothing there.

Even if I then try to paste into another program, there's nothing.

If MS Word is already open, copy/paste work just fine.

This is not a huge issue except when I want to save a copy of some long diatribe I've written in a webpage email and forget to open MS Word first.

How do I fix this problem?

Specifics:
IE 6.0.2900
Windows SP2
Word 97 SR2
Compaq computer 1 gig RAM, lots of HD space

Thanks,

General Tsao