Replies

yep. it’s called life.

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…

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.

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.

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?

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

thanks.

interesting… i did something else which seems to have solved my outlook problem, but didnt solve my MS Word problem… i uninstalled, ran a registry cleaner and then reinstalled office. this fixed the “outlook always on top” problem, but the normal.dot problem i mentioned in the word forum is still a problem.

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

on #2, i think you start roofing from the bottom up.

looks like the windmill blades will not clear the stairway