Theasaurus probelm in word 97

I have installed Office 97, but find that when i try to
use the Thesaurus in Word, I get the error message, "Word cannot find the
thesaurus file msth.232.dll for Italian(Standard)in the directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Proof" but the file is present. I have looked at the
Microsoft technical support page, and i have tried to apply the resolution of the article q236394,but the doesn't work. The
microsoft helpline is not aware that the problem exists, and could offer no
help. Does anyone know how to get over this problem?