🚀 go-pugleaf

As I am finishing up my dissertation :))), I have been running into a very
annoying bug with an increasing regularity: I am losing pictures in my text!

I use MSWord 4.00B.  I generate equations with Expressionist 2.07, and figures
with MacDraw II 1.1.  My text files are set-up to make an automatic back-up.
During the past week, I must have lost equations/figures at least 5 times.
I recall having read that Word 4.00 had a bug that would lose information
in PICTS and cause the software to crash from time to time, a bug that was
fixed in either 4.00A or 4.00B.  Apparently, 4.00B doesn't "repair" the
damage caused by 4.00. (I had written most of the material using 4.00 and
upgraded only recently)  It is also quite clear in my mind that the bug occurs
iff the *Make Backup* option is checked.  This being said:

 1) Is the bug *really* fixed in 4.00B, or are there instances of a document
    created entirely in 4.00B and losing pictures/equations.

 2) Am I correct in assuming that the bug will present itself iff Make-backup
    is checked.  In other words, should I uncheck this option in order to
    stop losing my eqns (they take a h*ll of a time to retype!)

 3) Assuming that 4.00 has mangled some picts, is there a way to identify the
    problem and to recreate those picts.  What if I copy from word, paste into
    Expressionist or MacDraw, and back into word 4.00B: will I get a stable
    file?

Any other suggestion? [I've used Word for several years now, and was (am?)
very pleased with it.   I am, however, developing a serious case of
apprehension.  I just can't use a soft that can lose literally weeks of work]

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.

Stephane