Normal and Custom Templates - setting up Word 2k3

[Colonel Blip]

I will apologize before I start this thread - I've tried in other threads to
deal with some of the issues here but in the final analysis this long time
WordPerfect user is probably more confused than ever and looking for help.

I have the following need:

Normal.dot that is generated by Word and left alone by me!! <g>
Custom styles
Custom toolbars
Macros/VBA code

1. My question - how should I set this up so any document I create has
access to all of these.

I will tell you right now I have just added 'stuff' to the normal.dot as
I've gone but this seems to have 'bloated' the normal.dot. If I should
create a new custom template, what is the best way to do this to meet 1.?

Is there a link where all of this has been answered I can access? I'm happy
to read and try to understand better. I've been 'rooting' around the MVP
site but I've not yet gotten my hands (or mind) around the best way to
handle 1.

I'm probably making this more complicated than it needs to be, but then my
Normal.dot seems to have gotten awfully big.

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You might start with
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm. The short
answer is that if you want to keep Normal.dot "virgin," you need to put
macros, toolbar/menu customizations, AutoText, etc., in one or more global
templates, define styles in one or more document templates, and base each
new document on the appropriate document template.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Colonel Blip]

Let me see if this light bulb is on or off.

Create a custom template, blip.dot
Put all of my customizations in it, including custom styles, etc.
Have a shortcut using blip.dot or do a new file and use blip.dot as the
document template

However, if I open word via the normal shortcut (i.e.
drive:\folders\word.exe) it will be based on the Normal.dot and therefore
none of my custom stuff will be there.

Is this correct?
Is there a way, short of having all of the customization in the normal.dot
to have my blip.dot load no matter what template I base a new doc on?

Thanks.

p.s. I will go check out the link also.

 

[Colonel Blip]

Suzanne,

Thanks for the link. I read it and have setup my 'virgin' normal.dot and
cust.dot so everything is working as I want except.... <g>

I can not edit the macros in my custom.dot. The vba code in my cust.dot is
locked and not accessible when I open up word. How does one unlock it, since
I created it in the first place?

 

[Colonel Blip]

Found another 'problem' which I am researching, but perhaps you know the
answer. I had assigned F12 to STyles & Formatting (double A on the toolbar)
so the task pane would show these. Once I setup my virgin normal and
custom.dot this didn't work. So I opened the custom.dot, assigned F12 to the
AA and saved. If I open a document by double clicking on the custom.dot
template then the F12 runs but if I open word normally with the custom.dot
as a addin it doesn't. Is this by design? If so, guess I my normal will not
be virgin. :-(

 

[Jay Freedman]

In order to edit the macros in a global template, you have to open
that template from the File > Open dialog as if it was a document.

To get to it, you'll have to navigate through the folder structure to
your Startup folder. Once you're there, use the "Add to 'My places'"
item on the Tools dropdown to make an icon in the left column, so you
can get there quickly the next time.

While the template is an open "document", its project will be unlocked
in the VBA editor.

 

[Colonel Blip]

I was afraid you would say that. <g>

This makes saving recorded macros a bit more difficult. Process is now:
Record macro and it is saved in Normal.dot
Open Temp/Addins, Organizer
Move to custom.dot
Delete from normal.dot

Correct?

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

You can record the macro directly into Custom.dot, but only if custom.dot or
a document based on it is open and active. At the bottom of the record
dialog, there's a dropdown menu for Store In:

(I find it easier to back up Normal.dot than to deal with the whole storing
thing, especially as moving macros requires you to reset keyboard and
toolbar shortcuts. But that's just a personal choice).

Does anybody else think that being *always* available to store
customizations should be part of the function of a global template in the
Startup folder? Wouldn't that be logical? They haven't added that in
post-2001 versions, have they?

DM

 

[Graham Mayor]

Having read this thread, it is worth mentioning that Word is quite happy to
work with large normal.dot files, and while a larger file will take a bit
longer to install, it will not take longer than the time taken to find and
load a pile of add-ins that provide the same functionality. FWIW my own
normal.dot is currently 2.3 mb and I do not have problems with reliability.

While I do carry some code in add-ins, most of my macros are either in
normal.dot or the document templates to which they apply.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Like Dayo, I just store most of this stuff in Normal.dot. It's always
accessible, which makes customizing it much easier. I don't customize any
document settings (font, margins, styles, etc.) in Normal.dot; I leave that
for my custom document templates. But I do save all my toolbar and menu
customizations, almost all shortcut key assignments, and most macros in
Normal.dot, along with most AutoText (a few AutoText entries are stored in
specific templates when I remember to do so).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

I do keep a single global add-in where I store macros that have permanent
value to me. New macros, until they prove that value, sit in Normal.dot for
days or weeks. When I get a round tuit, I move some of them to the global
template. I don't move that many, so I don't find it that much of a burden.

I almost never use the recorder because I find it extremely limiting. Its
only value to me is in finding out what object or method corresponds to a
particular UI command. Once I get that information, I throw away the
recorded macro and write a proper one. Among other failings, the recorder
always uses the Selection object instead of Range objects, and it records
only the final results of dialogs -- but then it records the whole useless
pile of parameters, not just the one the user changed. It just isn't worth
the time and effort.

The requirement to open a global template directly hasn't changed, at least
through Word 2003, and isn't likely to change. I don't know for sure, but I
suspect that making a global template accept edits the way you suggest would
take more reworking of Word's code than MS wants to do for what's really a
minor convenience.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

I once got a round tuit from a guy by the name of Zig Zigglar. Think I still
have it somewhere.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Custom document templates: hold styles, text, formatting, some AutoText,
some macros
Global templates other than normal.dot: hold AutoText, macros, keyboard
shortcuts, toolbars, other user interface modications
Normal.dot: temporary holder for macros, basic set of styles.

I don't use documents based on normal.dot for much except scratch paper
these days.

For more on the different kinds of templates and locations of templates
folders see <URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm>.

--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also 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.

 

[Colonel Blip]

I just want to make the point of thanking all of you for your input on this.
I think I have this thing understood (for now and sufficient for my use)
thanks to the guidance I got here.

I have an essentially virgin normal.dot (has my basic styles and some
keyboard shortcuts that didn't seem to cut in in my custom.dot). I have the
normal.dot backed up so if it gets 'creamed' I will not be out anything. My
custom.dot will likely not change much unless I add some toolbar stuff or
find some macros are needed. I'll probably do the toolbar stuff in my
custom.dot, but the macros I will add to the normal.dot and move them as I
see they are needed longer term.

I will now start to create specific document templates for new documents
before I get busy writing and hopefully avoid some of the other problems
that I've had.

In the meantime I was able to find out why my normal.dot kept growing
exponentially (or at least how to avoid it doing so) thanks to Susanne in
another thread.

As a result of all of this both my normal.dot and custom.dot have stayed
relatively small and quick to load.

Thanks again. I'm sure I will have more questions over time. <g>