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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm

--
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
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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Having more than one copy of Normal.dot can certainly cause problems, but
the whole point of having more than one profile is to have different
settings in different profiles, so that should not be the issue here unless
(a) Tools | Options | File Locations is pointing to the wrong Normal.dot
and/or (b) the Normal.dot you modified is the wrong one (hard to see how
that would happen unless you changed the settings while you had Normal.dot
open for editing, and even at that I'm not sure what the result would be).

--
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.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Andrea

I haven't been following all the details of this thread, but as I understand
it, the options at Tools > Options are not holding.

You wrote this:

I use a disk cleaning program obsessively, so there weren't any .tmp files
anywhere, but there were a couple of other junk files, including a
~$normal.dot template from 2005.

This disk cleaning program is probably a registry cleaner. And it sounds to
me like it's cleaning out the Word Data key, where the setting setting is
saved.

Try turning it off for a few days and see what happens.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Andrea]

Hmmm, you may have something there! The software is Diskcleaner
http://www.diskcleaner.nl and is supposed to clear temporary files, but I
just looked at all the plugins. There is one for Office, and part of it
includes Data Settings. Rather than turning off the program, I unchecked
that box and will see if that does anything.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Andrea

If un-ticking that particular box doesn't work, I suggest you keep
un-ticking boxes in that program until you find the one that is causing the
problem.

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Andrea]

Hi Shauna,

The software is open source and free, so one uses it with some risk. I
haven't had a problem with it before and don't know if it's the cause of the
problem yet. Believe me, I'll be thrilled to find some resolution. I've
looked at all of the programs that it addresses because the user picks and
chooses and can add additional plugins at will, but I can't see anything
else that could interfere with Word. I did pause at Microsoft Works, but I
don't use that and don't have it checked off. Most of the plugins are set to
delete recent files; I don't know why it was written to "clean" the Office
settings. If it turns out to be the cultprit, I'll post a message to the
Diskcleaner page--as the web site requests.

 

[Graham Mayor]

I have examined the normal.dot you sent and that works fine - it even
changed my registry so I will have to roll back to yesterday to fix all the
preferences it contained

I am inclined to agree with Shauna that your disc cleaner is the problem.
Treat such software with caution. Those that attack the registry can
sometimes be more trouble than help. It is simple enough to clear out
temporary files manually. In fact Windows itself provides a tool to do that
called Disc Cleanup.

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Andrea]

Thank you. I'll keep an eye on this now that I've unticked the Office part
of the diskcleaner. So far, so good. I like this particular diskcleaner
(except for the Office component apparently) more than the Windows tool
because it cleans out caches from more programs, e.g., SeaMonkey, Yahoo.

 

[Andrea]

It's been a few days and the settings are holding, so I think that the
problem is solved. Thank you all for your help--and especially Shauna, who
came up with the solution!

-Andrea

 

[srdiamond]

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

I had a similar problem, described below, and posted an angry letter to
the CCleaner forum. In the end I am not sure I was justified. The
developer's advocate shifted the blame to Microsoft, perhaps not
unreasonably. What do you think?

My Posting:
Advocate's first response:


Expecting a response in kind, I read this quite reasonable answer:

[/End quote]

Stephen Diamond

 

[Graham Mayor]

Any software that removes essential system files or registry information is
a hazard and not a help. If it removes Microsoft's software registry data on
Microsoft's operating system then it is worse than useless.

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

I had a similar problem, described below, and posted an angry letter
to the CCleaner forum. In the end I am not sure I was justified. The
developer's advocate shifted the blame to Microsoft, perhaps not
unreasonably. What do you think?

My Posting:
Advocate's first response:


Expecting a response in kind, I read this quite reasonable answer:

[/End quote]

Stephen Diamond

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Stephen

To my mind a "cleaner" should remove garbage or dirt, which is to say
unwanted things. A program that advertises that it "cleans" should not
delete data used by a program or a user. We might disagree over what is
wanted data and what is garbage. My view is that users need the settings
stored in the Word data key, and no cleaner should remove them without
warning.

CCleaner has had quite a lot of press in the Word newsgroups. (see
http://groups.google.com.au/groups?q=ccleaner+group:microsoft.public.word.*&start=10). I
contacted CCleaner in April this year to warn them that their cleaner was
scrubbing a bit too hard, but I did not get an acknowledgement or response.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

I had a similar problem, described below, and posted an angry letter to
the CCleaner forum. In the end I am not sure I was justified. The
developer's advocate shifted the blame to Microsoft, perhaps not
unreasonably. What do you think?

My Posting:
Advocate's first response:


Expecting a response in kind, I read this quite reasonable answer:

[/End quote]

Stephen Diamond

 

[Andrea]

I want to clarify that the software I was using wasn't CCleaner but Disk
Cleaner--with the same result. I posted the problem as a bug (not an angry
letter) on December 13th, but no one responded. Then on 12/22 someone
reported a similar bug in which he was losing his user settings, and this
time there were a few responses, including the suggestion to fix the Office
plugin so that it only cleans out junk files and not registry settings.

-Andrea

And then write a very angry letter to the makers of the software!

I had a similar problem, described below, and posted an angry letter to
the CCleaner forum. In the end I am not sure I was justified. The
developer's advocate shifted the blame to Microsoft, perhaps not
unreasonably. What do you think?

My Posting:
Advocate's first response:


Expecting a response in kind, I read this quite reasonable answer:

[/End quote]

Stephen Diamond

 

[srdiamond]

If some people want or need such thorough cleaning that their settings
have to be sacrificed in the process, I'm glad CCleaner provides this
capability for them. But it isn't a behavior the user has any reason to
expect. There must be a mechanism to bring the behavior to the user's
attention before the effect is felt. One obvious way would be to turn
Office cleaning OFF by default and pop-up a warning when the user
checks Office. At this point, the CCleaner developer's irresponsible
marketing of the product has destroyed the confidence in a product I
need to allow it access to my registry, and I have deleted CCleaner.

 

[Graham Mayor]

In the hands of people who don't know what they are doing, registry cleaners
do more harm than good. It's all very well having a smaller registry, which
might save a few seconds when you open Windows, but if the required entries
are scrubbed along the way, then the applications may not work properly and
in a worst case Windows will not start.

Some of these applications also remove 'redundant' dlls! Disaster in the
hands of the unwary

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[srdiamond]

I understand that even a massively inflated registry has no significant
effect on anything except the length of time required to search the
registry. Yet despite this knowledge, it is hard to eschew registry
cleaning. I don't know why exactly. There's something like a pre-wire
intution that if your remove 1,000 useless registry entries, it has to
imply there was a problem.

I myself don't run any serious risks, because I never proceed without a
full disk image. Worst case scenario, I lose 20 minutes while I restore
the disk. Sometimes problems arise with applications long afterwards,
but here the worse case is a reinstallation of the application.

Still, why waste the time. Registry cleaning may qualify as an
addiction.

Stephen R. Diamond

 

[srdiamond]

I understand that even a massively inflated registry has no significant
effect on anything except the length of time required to search the
registry. Yet despite this knowledge, it is hard to eschew registry
cleaning. I don't know why exactly. There's something like a pre-wire
intution that if your remove 1,000 useless registry entries, it has to
imply there was a problem.

I myself don't run any serious risks, because I never proceed without a
full disk image. Worst case scenario, I lose 20 minutes while I restore
the disk. Sometimes problems arise with applications long afterwards,
but here the worse case is a reinstallation of the application.

Still, why waste the time. Registry cleaning may qualify as an
addiction.

Stephen R. Diamond

 

[srdiamond]

I understand that even a massively inflated registry has no significant
effect on anything except the length of time required to search the
registry. Yet despite this knowledge, it is hard to eschew registry
cleaning. I don't know why exactly. There's something like a pre-wire
intution that if your remove 1,000 useless registry entries, it has to
imply there was a problem.

I myself don't run any serious risks, because I never proceed without a
full disk image. Worst case scenario, I lose 20 minutes while I restore
the disk. Sometimes problems arise with applications long afterwards,
but here the worse case is a reinstallation of the application.

Still, why waste the time. Registry cleaning may qualify as an
addiction.

Stephen R. Diamond

 

[Graham Mayor]

However it might stop your PC coughing out posts in triplicate?

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

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>