Custom Menus and Menu Items Disappear in Word 2002/XP

[Guest]

Hi everyone--

My organization has created templates with custom menus and custom menu items. For example, we have a menu that says Styles. We also have a custom menu item we added to Word's standard Tool menu.

The problem is that these disappear when used in Word 2002, even if we re-create the template completely in Word 2002. The problem doesn't seem to happen with customizations to Normal.dot--only other templates have this problem. As a workaround, I created a custom *toolbar* but this workaround doesn't work for custom menu items added to standard Word menus, as in the example I gave above. Does anyone have any thoughts re this issue? Thanks!

 

[Graham Mayor]

This problem has been noted where there are third party add-ins that write
to the menus - Acrobat being a prime contender. You need to ensure that your
add-in loads after any other add-ins (and takes account of their presence)
to have any chance of success (more info about add-in loading at
http://www.gmayor.com/lose_that_adobe_acrobat_toolbar.htm) or include the
changes in the document templates.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Craig Flores]

Hi Graham--

Thanks for your post. Forgive my lack of clarity--in
reality we wanted to make our custom menus appear, not
disappear.

The issue is in Word 2002 only. I just found out that if
we place the customizations in Normal, there is no
problem. Or if we place customizations in a template in
Word's startup folder, again there is no problem. The
problem is that when we place a non-Normal template (e.g
Whatever.dot) in the templates folder, the customizations
don't work. Yet there was no problem re this same
procedure in Word 2000. Any further light you could shed
would be appreciated. Thanks. I enjoyed your Web site...

--Craig

 

[Charles Kenyon]

First, you do want to create _all_ of your customizations to be on one or
more custom toolbars, even if you want them on the built-in menus or
toolbars. Custom toolbars can be copied to other templates, customizations
to built-in toolbars and menus can not. Then copy your buttons/menu items to
the built-in menus/toolbars.

For things that you want to use only from the built-in toolbars/menus, put
them on a separate custom toolbar. After you have copied them to the
built-ins, you can disable your custom toolbar.

Doing things this way, I've never had a problem with customizations to
built-ins in a document template. (Sometimes Add-Ins conflict with each
other but the document template customizations seem to survive that.)

Open one of the documents based on your template where your toolbars have
disappeared. Check under Tools => Templates and Add-Ins... Is the attached
template normal.dot? If so, you have something else going on.

Any chance someone in your IT department has set up something during login
that resets toolbars and menus? This shouldn't be a problem but might be.

Are your customizations being manually done using the Customization dialog
or are they being done on-the-fly using code in your templates. If the
latter, what are your macro security settings?
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

Hi everyone--

My organization has created templates with custom menus and custom menu

items. For example, we have a menu that says Styles. We also have a custom
menu item we added to Word's standard Tool menu.

The problem is that these disappear when used in Word 2002, even if we

re-create the template completely in Word 2002. The problem doesn't seem to
happen with customizations to Normal.dot--only other templates have this
problem. As a workaround, I created a custom *toolbar* but this workaround
doesn't work for custom menu items added to standard Word menus, as in the
example I gave above. Does anyone have any thoughts re this issue? Thanks!

 

[Graham Mayor]

I included the link to demonstrate how add-ins load in sequence.
I take it then that your menus are in specific document templates? These
will only be present when those particular templates are used to create the
documents. If you want them ever present you need to put them in an add-in
or normal.dot. I can think of no mechanism that would allow menus from an
add-in to work but not from a document template.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Guest]

Hi Charles-

Thanks for the response

To clarify:
1) I deleted Normal.dot in Word 2002 and generated a new one by opening and closing Word. I did this to alleviate any corruption issues
2) I created a new template, exper.dot, in my default templates directory where Normal resides: C:\Documents and Settings\CFlores\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
3) I added a custom menu item under Word's built-in Options menu. (Menu item is a 'child' of Options 'parent'.
4) I saved template
5) I verified in Customization dialog box that my custom menu was not saved to Normal.dot, but to exper.dot
6) I closed template
7) I opened a .doc based on exper.dot. My menu item was gone. When I opened the Customization template, the Save In option was set to Normal.dot

FYI, I tried the same procedure with a custom menu (at the same level as Options rather than a child). When I opened doc, I could see menu briefly before it disappeared

So, the excellent info that you and Graham gave me leads me to believe that Normal is loading AFTER exper.dot loads. I absolutely don't know what to do...the toolbar route helps somewhat, but our needs require some custom child options to Word's built-in menus (such as Options). The only workaround is to place templates in Startup. Do you have any idea what could cause Normal to load after exper.dot

Thanks

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Did you read my entire post? You want to put all of your customizations on a
custom toolbar. Then, if you want some of them on Word's Built-In
toolbars/menus, copy them from your custom toolbar to the built-in. Make
sure that the save-in location on the Customization dialog is in your
template.

You need to save your exper.dot in the Word Startup Folder if you want the
menus available in all of your documents.

1) If this is not the case, try opening Word. Create a new document based on
exper.dot. When you create the new document, are your customizations
available?

2) If so, save, close, and reopen your new document without closing Word.
Are your customizations available?

3) If so, close the document and Word. Start Word again. Then open your
document. Are your customizations available?

If they are, then the problem is with Word losing the attachment to the
template somehow.
Tools => Templates and Add-Ins...
Is your template shown as the attached template? Is the path shown correct?
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

I know of no condition in which normal.dot loads after another template but
haven't experimented. This would surprise me.

Hi Charles--

Thanks for the response:

To clarify:
1) I deleted Normal.dot in Word 2002 and generated a new one by opening

and closing Word. I did this to alleviate any corruption issues.

2) I created a new template, exper.dot, in my default templates directory

where Normal resides: C:\Documents and Settings\CFlores\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates.

3) I added a custom menu item under Word's built-in Options menu. (Menu

item is a 'child' of Options 'parent'.)

4) I saved template.
5) I verified in Customization dialog box that my custom menu was not

saved to Normal.dot, but to exper.dot.

6) I closed template.
7) I opened a .doc based on exper.dot. My menu item was gone. When I

opened the Customization template, the Save In option was set to Normal.dot.

FYI, I tried the same procedure with a custom menu (at the same level as

Options rather than a child). When I opened doc, I could see menu briefly
before it disappeared.

So, the excellent info that you and Graham gave me leads me to believe

that Normal is loading AFTER exper.dot loads. I absolutely don't know what
to do...the toolbar route helps somewhat, but our needs require some custom
child options to Word's built-in menus (such as Options). The only
workaround is to place templates in Startup. Do you have any idea what could
cause Normal to load after exper.dot?