Prompting for saving Normal.dat style

[Gene Goldenfeld]

The other day I reinstalled Office 2000 Pro and since then, each time I
check out of Word it asks if I want to save the changes to normal.dat, even
though I haven't made any changes to it. What's going on? Thanks,

Gene Goldenfed

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

The other day I reinstalled Office 2000 Pro and since then, each time I
check out of Word it asks if I want to save the changes to normal.dat, even
though I haven't made any changes to it. What's going on? Thanks,

To be clear, the message each time is, "Changes have been made to the
global template, Normal.dot. Do you want to save those changes?" -- GG

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

Problem solved. It's a default setting under Tools/Options/Save

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

The option for prompting is not the underlying cause but merely a symptom.
Disabling the prompt is like taking the battery out of a smoke detector
because it goes off when there is smoke in the room. If you disable the
prompt, Word will just save Normal.dot without asking you. If it is saving
Normal.dot *every* time you open Word, then there is something wrong, and
the usual cause is a malfunctioning add-in.

Good to know this. So what is the best way to approach finding the problem
add-in?

Gene

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

The option for prompting is not the underlying cause but merely a symptom.
Disabling the prompt is like taking the battery out of a smoke detector
because it goes off when there is smoke in the room. If you disable the
prompt, Word will just save Normal.dot without asking you. If it is saving
Normal.dot *every* time you open Word, then there is something wrong, and
the usual cause is a malfunctioning add-in.

I found a MS Support doc for Word 2000 on this:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;241763

It gives four potential causes. If we rule out the Tools/Option setting,
we're left with a possible virus, the Word in Works Suite option or the
Stamps.com option. I use NAV and it doesn't show a virus and the other two
aren't in the Add/Remove Programs list. Now, those four come from
searching for "Normal.dot saves" under Word 2000. Should I be searching
under Office 2000 Pro instead? thanks.

Gene

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can see some of the add-ins you have by looking at Tools | Templates and
Add-ins. Later versions of Word can also have COM add-ins; wrt those, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm. The
only way to isolate the malfunctioning one is to remove/disable all of them
and add them back one at a time till you find the offender. But Graham may
be on the right track suggesting the Norton Office Plug-in, as it's a major
source of conflicts, and Symantec and Microsoft both say that you do not
compromise your virus protection by disabling it provided you leave
Auto-Protect enabled.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I hate to tell you, but WFWORD2K.DOT, which is installed by WinFax Pro, is
one of the most notorious offenders, though its usual problem is a conflict
with the Norton Office Plug-in (ironic since they're both made by
Symantec!).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

I hate to tell you, but WFWORD2K.DOT, which is installed by WinFax Pro, is
one of the most notorious offenders, though its usual problem is a conflict
with the Norton Office Plug-in (ironic since they're both made by
Symantec!).

Ah yes, the WinFax Pro/Word conflict once again. Before I reinstalled
Office, I had uninstalled/reinstalled NIS completely. After everything was
back together I expected the usual Word-won't-open problem you discuss on
your site, but it didn't materialize and so I thought everything was ok.
WFWORD2K.DOT won't stay unchecked session-to-session and the Remove button
doesn't illuminate for it. So, what do you suggest? I would like to keep
use of WinFax, if possible. Thanks,

Gene

 

[Gene Goldenfeld]

Remove the add-in from Word's Startup folder. I believe you can still send
faxes by choosing WinFax as the "printer" in the Print dialog.

There's actually a Symantec page on this problem (see below). It has four
steps:
1)make sure no versions of Word are running
2)rename normal.dot to normal.old
3)delete all wfword2k.dot
4)reinstall the WinFax macro

Whatever good the first three steps did -- and I neglected to save the new
Normal.dot file when closing Word to check -- step 4 creates the
crashing-on-opening problem. So I turned off NAV's Office Plug-in, got
rid of the WinFax macro, and emptied the Norton Protected Files (i.e.,
Norton's version of the Recycle Bin), which isn't mentioned and may or may
not be necessary. That solves it and I can still use WinFax in Word by
opening the former's controller. Thanks.

Gene Goldenfeld

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...tact_tscs_solve.html&src=sg&pcode=winfax&svy=

 

[Graham Mayor]

You might find the following simple macro helful to print faxes direct from
Word:

Sub FaxPrint()
Dim sCurrentPrinter As String
sCurrentPrinter = ActivePrinter
ActivePrinter = "WinFax"
Application.PrintOut FileName:=""
ActivePrinter = sCurrentPrinter
End Sub

See http://www.gmayor.dsl.pipex.com/installing_macro.htm

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.dsl.pipex.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Gene Goldenfeld]

Thanks, Graham, I'll get a look at it soon.