User Settings not saved

[Guest]

Hi listmates,

I'm new to Office 2003 and have a question about saving my settings. I have
customized the toolbars, turned track changes on, and added a couple of menu
items, but every time I exit Word and get back in, the personal settings
disappear. I opened Normal.dot and saved the settings directly in the
template, but whenever I open an existing document with its own template, the
settings disappear again, as if Word cannot see Normal.dot.

Does anybody have this problem or know the solution? Thanks

 

[Bill Foley]

There could be a "locked" temp file for normal.dot that exists that won't
allow these changes to be saved. Try the following and see if it works:

1. Close Word.
2. Open Windows Explorer.
3. Click "Tools", "Folder Options", click the "View" TAB and change the
setting to "Show hidden files and folders". Click "OK" to accept.
4. Do a "Search" for "normal.dot".
5. If the file is locked, a file called "~$normal.dot" will show up in the
search. If so, delete it.
6. Open Word and try changing and saving Word settings.

Holler back if this doesn't work.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the answer Bill. Unfortunately, there was no ~$normal.dot hanging
around.

As extra information, if I leave a blank document open while opening other
documents based on Normal, the settings still show up fine. The moment I
close the blank document, all my settings disappear. It's as if the settings
are being loaded from "This Document" instead of Normal.dot. Also, if I open
documents based on a template other than Normal.dot, Word takes on the
settings of that template (even if I have a blank Normal document open!).
Weird, but true!