Permanently change the location of normal.dot

[KateB]

A while ago I did a silly thing & changed the location of normal.dot
from the one on our server to a personalised one (which was on my
desktop). I've tried changing the location back to both the network &
a local version in documents & settings, but each time I close word,
it recreates a version on the desktop.

I'm using word 2003.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Kate

 

[Terry Farrell]

Go to Tools, Options, File Locations and set the User Templates folder to
where you want normal.dot to be located. Note that this should ALWAYS be on
your local HDD in YOUR user profile and never on the server. Also note that
ALL your user templates need to be in this location and not just normal.dot.

Though by all means, make a backup of your normal.dot and store it on the
server in case of corruption or disk failure.

 

[KateB]

Terry,

You've just made my day!! I'm a bit of a clean desktop freak

I was trying to change it using Tools>Templates & Add Ins, then
"Attach". Obviously this does something else.

Our corporate policy was to have all the templates on the server, can
you tell me why it's important that they're stored locally?

Thanks again!
Kate

 

[Terry Farrell]

Because normal.dot stores the user's personal customisations/settings. Word
expects it to be local. The only exception is when using Terminal Services.
If normal.dot is put in an alien location, then the File Locations setting
would have to be changed and then all the user's templates would need to be
moved to the same location and so on. If the company wants the users to use
the company templates, then they should be placed on the server in a
Workgroup folder and the File Locations settings in Word should be pointed
to the Work Group location.

Terry

Terry,

You've just made my day!! I'm a bit of a clean desktop freak

I was trying to change it using Tools>Templates & Add Ins, then
"Attach". Obviously this does something else.

Our corporate policy was to have all the templates on the server, can
you tell me why it's important that they're stored locally?

Thanks again!
Kate