[AccessD] A97 - References

I have several users of the same database on a network - all works
fairly well - except, now some folks have gotten new computers and new
versions of Access (AXP).  They also have A97 on their computer, because
I don't want to switch until everyone has AXP.

There is a button on a form that creates a Word document.  Since
everyone does not have Word97 (many have WXP), I have copied the Word
8.0 dll (set a reference) to a shared location so that this works on
everyone's computer.  However, somehow (I don't know how) the reference
is getting changed to the Word 10 dll, which screws things up.  All I
have to do is change the reference back and all is well.

Is there a way to ensure that the reference cannot be changed?

Any ideas?  Let me know if this does not make sense.