normal.dot - where is it in vista

[lschaefer33]

I need to change my normal.dot. I am using word2003. I can not locate it
in vista. i knew where it was in xp; did a search including hidden and
system files and still couldn't find it. please advise. thank you

 

[lschaefer33]

PS i did go to the microsoft help page on it and it said to click the windows
button, then 'open' then open 'templates' i can not find anything that says
'open' after i click the windows button. I get a list of programs on the
left, and on the right a lot of choices, none of which say 'open'

 

[Jay Freedman]

I need to change my normal.dot. I am using word2003. I can not locate it
in vista. i knew where it was in xp; did a search including hidden and
system files and still couldn't find it. please advise. thank you

Copy the following line and paste it into the address bar of the Computer
application:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates

Then press Enter. That will take you to the default location of the Office
templates.

The same address works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista, because the
%appdata% part points to the Application Data folder in XP and the AppData
folder in Vista, both under the current user's profile. That way you don't have
to know the exact location or the Windows version.

 

[lschaefer33]

thank you for this information. I am not sure what you mean by 'address bar
of the computer application" I was using explorer to try to find normal.dot.
when i put %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates in the search field, it yields no
results.

Can you please provide further information? Thank you.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Microsoft has made it hard to describe these things because they keep changing
the names, and some things don't have visible labels any more, while other
things look different depending on what options you have set.

In Vista, if you have the default Start menu with a "Start Search" box at the
bottom, click in that box and type Computer, then click the word Computer in the
list of programs. If you have changed the Start menu to use the "Classic Start
menu", there is no "Start Search" box, but there will be a Computer icon on the
desktop to double-click. Either of these actions opens the file management
window formerly known as "Windows Explorer" (not to be confused with the browser
called Internet Explorer).

In that window, the address bar is at the top, just to the right of the back and
forward buttons. It is _not_ the Search box -- that's further to the right.
Don't try to search for %appdata% or anything involving it, because the search
engine doesn't understand that alias (technically, it's a reference to an
environment variable). Just paste the expression into the address bar and press
Enter.