Normal.dot 'default' does not stay

  • Thread starter Thread starter George
  • Start date Start date
G

George

I'm using Word2003, and for the past few days, when I started up the PC in
the morning, and started Word, I found that the blank document (normal.dot)
had fallen back to "factory" defaults...Times Roman font and 1.25"
left/right margins.

I keep setting it to Arial 12pt (then press Default), and 1.00" left/right
margins (then press Default). The defaults stay put until I turn off the
PC. Then they evaporate and go back to Microsoft's defaults. There's not
enough history yet to see if this always happens or what.

There's been no new software installed or problems in past few days, and I
don't recall any out-of-the-ordinary things being used or done in the past
few days...nothing to look to as a possible cause.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
George
 
Things to check:

1. On the Save tab of Tools | Options, do you have "Prompt to save Normal
template" checked? If not, check it.

2. When you close Word after making the changes to the default, are you now
prompted to save Normal.dot? If so, say yes. If not, we need to figure out
why not.

3. Is this a freestanding computer, or are you on a network? If the latter,
is this a corporate network? If so, is Normal.dot stored on the network and
read-only? If so, you're out of luck until you can persuade the net admins
that this is not the correct setup (see “You cannot share the Normal.dot
file among multiple users in Word” at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811468).

4. Even if Normal.dot is not read-only and changes are being saved, it's
possible that a start-up script (or an add-in) is resetting your settings to
the default at startup. Again, this is an issue to take up with the IT
department.

--
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.
 
To clarify, does it reset back to the defaults when you exit Word or
just when you restart your computer?

Also if you go to Tools/Options/Save and turn on "Prompt to save
Normal" do you encounter a prompt to save your Normal template when
you exit Word after making the modifications?

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
Thank you.

-the "Prompt to save Normal template" was not checked, but I checked
it...and confirmed later it was still checked. (How would it have gotten
unchecked anyway?)

-Still, Word wipes out my changed Default margins and font. It wipes it out
once I leave Word, and then start Word again. Apparently, turning off the
PC is not the factor.

It's never done this before, and I've always been able to easily change the
defaults. Thanks for any suggestions.

George
 
Ok, here's what I think happend, but it's still not recovering.

I keep the normal.dot template (along with many others) in a special
folder...let's just call it for discussion purposes:
c:\mytemplates\normal.dot (and others)

So, in conjunction with this, a long time ago, I went into Word options and
pointed template "Files" to the above folder. Worked great...

....Until I apparently temporarily renamed the folder to let's say
c:\mytemplatesNEEDSCLEANUP\normal.dot

That tripped Word upon re-start. But the real problem now is... Word is
supposed to re-create a normal.dot template. It's not doing it, I searched
(all of My Computer) on *normal*.dot... nothing comes up... no hidden files,
nothing. Re-starting word goes into a blank document...but where's the
normal.dot?

I have a backup tape and can get it off that, but isnt' it supposed to
recreate itself and put itself somewhere?

Thanks
 
Thanks, but it's not being created at all. I modify margins/font, but
still.... there's no normal.dot on the c-drive at all. It's not creating
the file.
 
If you are using Windows XP and are using Windows Search to locate
Normal.dot then display the "More advanced options" and make sure
"Search hidden files and folders" is turned on.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
Are you getting the prompt when you quit Word? And if you are the person I
was helping before, it would help if you replied in the same thread. If you
are the same poster, I asked a number of other questions that you have not
answered.

--
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.
 
Please don't keep starting new threads. It makes it impossible to follow
your case.

--
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.
 
Thank you, my apologies for not paying closer attention tot the thread. I
believe below answers questions you posted, and I appreciate responses if
below prompts ideas to correct issue, thank you again:

-the "Prompt to save Normal template" was not checked, but I checked
it...and confirmed later it was still checked.

-When I close Word after making changes to default, it does *not* prompt me
to save Normal.dot

-this PC is on a very small network, non corporate. Normal.dot (was) on the
PC.

-I had put Normal.dot in a special folder and pointed Word to that, it has
worked well for years but may have fallen apart when I renamed the folder,
then put it back.

-I deleted all the Normal.dot's to see if they were corrupt, since Word is
supposed to re-create Normal.dot, but Word did *not* recreate it.

-I restored Normal.dot (from a backup tape) and now have my default settings
back...but any attempts to change them to something else...doesn't work...
it drops the new defaults when I exit Word.

-I have the latest Adobe Acrobat Pro 7 (installed maybe 2 weeks ago), does
it affect the Normal.dot...is there a way to recover?

Thanks for any suggestions
 
I just discovered this is all over the Adobe Acrobat newsgroup... apparently
Acrobat 7 installed with Word 2003 interferes with changing the default
Normal.dot template, and interferes with Word re-creating a new Normal.dot
if it's deleted.

The workaround appears to be... If, after making changes that would affect
normal.dot (new or changed styles, autotext entries, etc.), you hold down
Shift and click on the file menu, you'll have an option to "Save All" click
on that and you'll be prompted to save normal.dot.

However, is there a way to "fix" this in Word 2003, so it doesn't require
special treatment... or do we have to wait on a patch for Adobe Acrobat 7.

Thanks,
George
 
Yeow! That *is* a bummer. Adobe has a history of releasing software intended
to integrate with Word that makes an incredible mess of it. Eventually
they'll get their act together and provide a fix, but for the time being I
guess you're stuck with the workaround. I guess I should be glad I have
Acrobat 6.0!

--
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.
 
Interesting! Yet another strike against their add-in. Seems like each
attempt to correct their errors ends up making things worse. You'd
think they'd have contacted a proper developer by now - it's not that
the issues they continue to create aren't easy to fix. <sigh>

Other than removing the Adobe add-in there isn't a 'fix'. I suspect
they are setting the Saved property of Normal.dot to True which means
Word 'thinks' the Normal.dot has not been modified and it ends up
discarding your modifications. In that case the problem lies in their
add-in.

Thanks for passing this information along.
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 

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