Restoring Blank Document Template

[Guest]

I have most unwittingly changed the Blank template in my Word 2007 so that
when I open Word now, it automatically brings up a document containing the
text and formatting of a document that I recently created. I have found
answers addressing this problem in previous versions of Word, but they seem
inapplicable to 2007. I am able to create new templates, but would like to
get rid of the erroneously saved blank template. I have tried deleting the
corrupted template, and while I can delete any other templates, I always get
a message stating that a document using the blank template is up in another
program (it's not - as far as I can tell), thereby prohibiting its deletion.
Any advice?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

General principles at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm, but note that in
Word 2007 you're looking for Normal.dotm.

--
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.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Suzanne. I found that link earlier and tried those things, and they
allowed me to create a new normal.dotm template, which I am using. But the
default template in my program, which comes up as soon as I open Word and
which is displayed as the first template when I go to open a new document, is
entitled blank document, and I cannot figure out how to edit it so that it's
actually blank or to delete it. The simple answer is to always close out of
the non-blank "blank document" that opens when I open Word and then open a
new document using the normal.dotm template, but I get frustrated when I have
to take extra steps that I know I shouldn't have to take. Any advice on
getting rid of the blank document and replacing it with the normal.dotm that
I cleaned up, or on cleaning up the blank document (I can clean up what opens
as "document 1" but I can't save it as the blank document template so every
time I open Word, I get the same old document).

 

[Graham Mayor]

The blank document is the document created by normal.dotm. It sounds very
much as though you have a second normal.dotm. The default normal.dotm will
be in the hidden folder C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates which location is defined in Word Options >
advanced > file locations > user templates.

Only Word can create a normal template (which it will do when there is no
normal template in the indicated folder), so whatever your home made
normal.dotm happens to be, it will not do the job. You cannot save a
document as the normal template.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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