Hello
This is Indesign CS4. If I open a template all the fuctions with
Insert Special Character, White Space, Break Character are Active.
However, the current document, a newsletter, I am working on when I
opened into Type > Insert (Special; White, Break Characters) all the
fields are inactive, grayed out?

I opened several documents that are in progress and in all the created
documents this area Type/ Insert at the top levels they are active but
the bottom menus (items example: bullet character ; em space ; column
break) all those items are inactive, grayed out. Let me know the fix
on correcting this behavior. For the moment the work is stalled
because of this anomoly. I thought the application was compromized
until I opened up a template. The template showed all the insert
fuctions as active. Thanks for any assistance,  John M