word saves changes to normal.dot

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Guest

I have word 2003 standard edition. I'm also a sharepoint user. At times, I
get a dialog box that says, Word automatically saved changes to the normal
document temporarily. Do you want to load it? I usually say no. Why is
this happening?

I also cannot see 2.67" of my bottom half of my page in print preview mode.
What did I do wrong?

Thanks in advance.
 
1) Under Tools > Options > Save check the option to prompt before saving
changes to normal.dot.
Then you will be asked about this before the changes are saved.

The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning. It
suppplements your virus detector and handles other potential problems. Its
display means that changes have been made, whether you intended to make
changes or not. You can also get it when your template has been altered by a
poorly written Add-In program or by a virus.

The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a poorly
written Add-In. The Norton AV Office Plug-In seems to be the most frequent
offender recently, but that can change as some other poorly written program
comes on the market.

Other offenders include the MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, and
Adobe Acrobat. These all install Add-Ins that mess with your normal.dot when
they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so. Some of these are .dot files,
others are installed. See <URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm> for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)

Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.

If not...

If you start Word using
Start => Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seing. When you close it, you won't get the
"normal.dot" prompt. Doing this may fix the problem, by itself, but probably
will not. Generally, it is a diagnostic, not a fix.

So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.

If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.

Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.

2) Can't see bottom of page in Print View mode.
Can you see it in Print Preview? Does it print properly?
Might this be a footer?

Hope this helps,
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
Charles, thanks for the response. I'll check out the global template issue
and get back to you. To clarify the 2nd issue - I can see the entire
contents of my document in Print Layout mode, but not print preview. It
seems that when I select print preview it wants to "fix" my margins and if I
say fix, it adjusts the bottom margin to 2.67", which cuts off my text...
footers are set for .5" thanks again for the help.
 
This likely has to do with your printer driver. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/BottomsDontPrint.htm.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
The 2.67" margin is typical of a problem with the HP drivers for certain
LaserJet printers. One workaround is to use a Windows driver instead (but
you may lose some advanced options) or to find a different driver that works
better. FWIW, many users have said that the drivers from
http://www.hp.com/pond/ljbeta/index.html solve the problem.

--
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.
 

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