Normal.dot Hell

When you delete Normal.dot, what happens when you open Word?

When I open word it opens up. I do a search after I close and before I close, there is no NORMAL.dot. I am viewing hiddnen files and folders. The reason i want to create a new normal is this. I make changes to default fonts and it does not stick. I set the font size to 14 and click on make default and still it doesn't do it.

Why don't you create a new document with all the fonts, etc. you need and save it in c:\ as normal.dot. Then copy it (overwrite if there is one) to the directory where everybody points at to get it and see what happens. You can also make it read-only.

Carlos--
I have tried that sort of a matter. Unfortunatley, that does not work either.

Look in Tools>Options>File locations
Word is using Normal.dot when it opens. Sometimes it can be located on a network drive, as well

These Microsoft Docs may be of some help
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319299&Product=offxp
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;319154

As mentioned before, open Word, go to Tools->Options->File Locations.
Look at the locations for "User Templates" and "Workgroup Templates". These may be either on a local or network drive. Once you have the locations, make sure you have write access to these locations so that Word can save the Normal.dot file.

Thank you all. I have checked all the basic settings...tool options file locations. I have changed the file location i have disabled the network normal so its not pointing there. I have never ever seen this before....

This is a tried and true method.

On the individual PC, Use find/search to locate all instances of Normal.dot.
Delete all of them.
Open Word and close Word
Use find/search to locate (and make note of) the instance of normal.dot.
Open Word and create the document you want to be your new normal.dot.
Save this document as normal_1.dot to the same location as the normal.dot
Close Word.
Browse to the location of the normal.dot and normal_1.dot files.
Delete normal.dot
Rename normal_1.dot to normal.dot

You should be okay now. Good Luck, Rich

Thank you Rich for the comments and advise. Here is the problem, WORD DOES NOT CREATE NORMAL.DOT. If it did that I would not have the problem. If I create one manually it does not update FONTS and SIZE when I set them as default. So I deleted all the normal.dot files. I opened up word, and then closed word. Guess what I found when I did a search for normal.dot There was not Normal.dot created. This is just too weird... I know it should work...but it does not

Point value changed by question poster.

What hapens when you use a blank document and Save As Document Template and name it Normal?

Have you tried Tools>Options
Prompt to save Normal template?

One last suggestion:
http://tinyurl.com/29vux
delete the Data Key

http://tinyurl.com/3xovk
Normal.dot is not automatically written Word
2002 until you make a customization that invokes a save to Normal.dot.
Normal is recreated via the Windows
registry, it is "saved" to templates once you close the active session of
Word.

Have you checked to see if these folks have a ~Normal.dot? If so, delete it and see if a new one gets created.

HTH,
Glenna

Hi JayDev,

I just went back through every submission and did not find anyone mentioned deleting (tilde)~NORMAL.DOT. Not NORMAL,DOT but ~NORMAL.DOT. These files get created when Word is shut down ungracefully.

Let us know.
Glenna

P.S. Exclude me from any award points, I'm just curious...

Anything here?

http://tinyurl.com/3c2a6

try this to wipe out word and begin a new...

go to start, run
type winword.exe /a
reopen word and you will be prompted to ask for users name an initials like you just installed it.

this will work for versions 2000 and above. please let me know if you have an earlier version.

good luck.

michael

had this problem on both laptops after installing pdfmaker aka adobe acrobat 7 trial edition. the normal.dot template was never saved, i could watch a
~normal.dot file form, but it never became permanent.

remove adobe acrobat, do not allow adobe to install any 'macros' in word if you reinstall.
good luck.

If anyone is curious. thank you all for posting. One of the admin's who did not ask anyone, decided to change templates locations for company and forced it via policy. I think i only asked him thousand times if any changes were made...

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