Normal.dot refuses to accept changes

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i am using office 2003 on a windows 7 pc (yes, because i like 2003). the copy of office that i am using is part of a site license, for my use at home for corporate business, so it does not have a 25-character unique ID.

when i open word, normal.dot is set for (among other things) 1.25 inch side margins and times roman 12 font. it ignores changes to these items, even when i check the “save these changes” box. when i reopen word, these changes are ignored. i have tried to uninstall and reinstall outlook from the CD unsuccessfully – i had to use revo uninstaller to remove office. but when i reinstall, i am right back where i started. it’s a huge annoyance.

regrettably, i don’t recall when it started acting this way, and have been unsuccessful restoring the PC to an earlier point.

suggestions gratefully welcomed.

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Some add-ins instruct Word to ignore changes to Normal.dot. To ensure that your changes are saved, immediately after making the changes, hold the Shift key, drop the file menu, and choose Save All. Does it work?

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first, no add-ins have been installed. second, regrettably, it’s unchanged. thanks for the suggestion…

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Have you tried to edit normal.dot directly?

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good idea… i assume it’s editable like a word doc. will get back to you on this.

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good idea… i assume it’s editable like a word doc. will get back to you on this.

It is. Word can edit any of the files it uses and it can, of course, be used to create .dot files as well.

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fascinating. (again, using word 2003) – there is no normal.dot file that i can find. i searched the c drive, and the closest i got was in c:usersbruceAppDataRoamingMIcrosoftTemplates, where there is a normal.dotm – which i think is applicable to office 2010, (probably part of the initial 60 day freebie on this PC.)

toolsoptionsfile locations shows a blank “workgroup templates” entry. the “user templates” entry has pointers to c:…roamingmicrosofttemplateslivecontent followed by a fork to either managed or user; managed has three branches; user has three branches; and so on.

but normal.dot does not appear in any of these.

suggestions?

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there is no normal.dot file that i can find. i searched the c drive, and the closest i got was in c:usersbruceAppDataRoamingMIcrosoftTemplates, where there is a normal.dotm – which i think is applicable to office 2010, (probably part of the initial 60 day freebie on this PC.)

If you used Office 2010, then later installed Office 2003, it’s possible that the settings are a bit scrambled in the registry. The standard recommendation is to thoroughly uninstall all versions of Office and then reinstall just Office 2003 (or if you want both, starting with the oldest version first).

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I use Office 2010, so am not sure how Word 2003 behaves. Found a Microsoft support page on normal.dot location: Normal.dot location.
You seem to be using Windows 7 (at least I got that idea), so the folders may be slightly different.

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Open Word and go to Tools, Options, File Location and open the path to User Templates. Make note of the path as that is where normal.dot should reside.

Open Explorer, navigate to that location and look to see if normal.dot is there. Note that it is considered as a system file by Windows so you need to make sure that in Explorer under Tools, Options, View tab the Show hidden files and folders option is checked and that Hide protected operating systems files option is unchecked.

If you still don’t see a normal.dot, then I’d still suspect an errant or legacy add-in causing the problem. In Word 2003, if you haven’t made any changes that need saving to normal.dot – such as the default font or page margins – then normal.dot won’t actually be created. If a rogue legacy add-in that inhibits changes to normal.dot was already installed when you installed Word 2003, normal.dot may never have been created.

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I uninstalled Office 2003 and the dregs of 2010. ran a registry cleaner. installed office 2003. checked for the existence of normal.dot – as expected, there was none. there are no plugins.

ran word 2003, changed to 1 inch3 margins and georgia 11 font; saved doc1.doc and closed word. reopened word, and found it was back to 1.25 inch margins and times new roman 12.

frankly, i’ve run out of ideas.

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I uninstalled Office 2003 and the dregs of 2010. ran a registry cleaner. installed office 2003. checked for the existence of normal.dot – as expected, there was none. there are no plugins.

ran word 2003, changed to 1 inch3 margins and georgia 11 font; saved doc1.doc and closed word. reopened word, and found it was back to 1.25 inch margins and times new roman 12.

frankly, i’ve run out of ideas.

Since you can get to the folders, this may not be a sensible question, but have to ask: do you have Windows Explorer set to allow you to see hidden files? (Click Alt in Windows Explorer to expose the File, Edit… toolbar, and then of course Tools > Folder options.).

Pam

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I uninstalled Office 2003 and the dregs of 2010. ran a registry cleaner. installed office 2003. checked for the existence of normal.dot – as expected, there was none. there are no plugins.

ran word 2003, changed to 1 inch3 margins and georgia 11 font; saved doc1.doc and closed word. reopened word, and found it was back to 1.25 inch margins and times new roman 12.

frankly, i’ve run out of ideas.

Bruce,

Forgive me if I’m being obvious here, but the steps you describe above wouldn’t change normal.dot anyway.

Can you just try the following steps for me?

Open up Word.

Choose Font from the Format menu.

Change the Font size to something different.

Click the Default button at the bottom of the dialog box.

You should see a dialog box asking if you want to change the default font to “whatever it is now but with the font size you’ve just described” and telling you that this change will affect all new documents based on the Normal template. (if that dialog box doesn’t appear, or if it says something else, please let us know). Click Yes.

Close down Word. Don’t save any changes to document 1 when it asks.

Open up Word.

Check the font size.

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You can try something else: get a document formatted as you want it, choose Save As and save it as a template, with a name of your choice. After doing this, whenever you want a new document, create it with your template. Just takes a bit of additional effort and seems it could save you a lot of headaches.

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did what you said (i’d been there – i.e. checking the “default” box to capture the changes in normal.dot, etc.) – but the changes are not captured.

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Maybe there is a problem with privileges related to using Windows 7? As a Windows XP user, I don’t know much about that. If you try to manually create a file in the Templates folder, does Windows allow you to do it?

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Rui, i like your idea because it gets me somewhere useful.
Pam, the question was appropriate, but i always make certain settings on a new PC, which includes having Win Explorer set to view hidden files and folders, show file extensions… in other words, i grew up in windows 3.1 and don’t relinquish control to anybody.
JScher, i can create files and place them in the templates folder. i wish i had my old XP box, but stuff happens. at least i was able to skip over vista.

it has become somewhat academic now, since Rui’s idea is workable, and my brain is fried. but the geek in me would love to know what happened, and if i am the only poor soul out there with this problem.

thanks all…

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Bruce,

I understand that. It’s hard not to have the desired solution. However, sometimes, we seem to be forced to take the next best thing. It happens so many times, unfortunately .

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yep. it’s called life.

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I’ve done a little playing with this and think I have a way figured out to make it work. It is a rather convoluted workaround but here goes….

On XP the templates are located by default at C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftTemplates

On Windows 7 it installs at C:usersAppDataRoamingMIcrosoftTemplates. For some reason Word does not leave its normal.dot at this location (it is deleted each time you close word and when you reopen you get the default document.)

The workaround that I have found is as follows.

1> Go to C:usersAppDataLocalMicrosoft (if Microsoft does not exist create it). Inside Microsoft create a folder called Templates. You should now have the following path C:usersAppDataLocalMicrosoftTemplates.

2> Now open Word and go to Tools-Options, Click on the File Locations tab click on User Templates to highlight it and click Modify. Browse to the new template location that you created in the first step and click OK.

Close and reopen word. You should now be able to change the Normal.dot template by making your changes and clicking default just like Windows XP………

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That suggests that there is one of those horrible and really weird corruptions in your user profile that is stopping you from making and saving changes to all ‘YOUR’ folders. Alternatively, it may be a Word registration error that makes it think that your Word session is not part of your profile so you are not to permitted to make any changes in the profile. Perhaps reregistering Word may resolve the issue.

From Start | Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /r (not /a as originally posted)

and press enter. That will reregister Word.

If you find you get any other weird problems, I suggest trying a new profile.

Terry

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@Terry

The only problem with your diagnosis of the problem is that it is on every Windows 7 machine that I have that uses Office 2003……..

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@Terry

The only problem with your diagnosis of the problem is that it is on every Windows 7 machine that I have that uses Office 2003……..

If all your machines have that problem, then you have a problem with the way that permissions have been set up. Each user needs full permissions to create/edit/delete files in all their folders and any common folders that Word uses. If all users have that problem, it suggests that they don’t have sufficient permissions.

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Terry,

Do you have any windows 7 machines with Office 2003 installed that are working correctly?

When I say all, I am talking about 20+ machines on several different domains and workgroups running different versions of office 2003, however, none of them save the normal.dot from one session to the next.

I gave Everyone permissions on the directory in the default location and can create and modify other files in that location. I also can see the Normal.dot in that location while word is open but as soon as word is closed, it is deleted.

It is quite possible that some process that I use to install word corrupts the profile on all the machines I manage. I put this question to the forum:

Does anyone have Word 2003 installed on Windows 7 that has a Normal.dot that works correctly?

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Does anyone have Word 2003 installed on Windows 7 that has a Normal.dot that works correctly?

Terry,

Yes, I have Office 2003 Pro 32-bit installed on my Wife’s Win-7 64-bit laptop and the Normal.dot works as it should allowing you to save changes. It is in a workgroup with 2 other computers but does not share the office installation. It does share Word .doc files with other computers.

Happy Holidays

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Terry,

Yes, I have Office 2003 Pro 32-bit installed on my Wife’s Win-7 64-bit laptop and the Normal.dot works as it should allowing you to save changes. It is in a workgroup with 2 other computers but does not share the office installation. It does share Word .doc files with other computers.

Happy Holidays

RT,

Thanks for the input. Most of mine are volume licensed and installed from an install source on the server while I am logged into the workstation as administrator and users are added later. I wonder if that has anything to do with it…….

Could you please check the location of normal.dot on your wife’s machine?

Thanks

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Mercyh,

Normal.dot resides at: C:Users[userid]AppDataRoamingMicrosoftTemplates.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Terry,

Normal.dot resides at: C:Users[userid]AppDataRoamingMicrosoftTemplates.

right click on the file and select open, make changes then hit the save button. This should affect the template and every time you open up a new document the settings should be as per your changes.

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