Custom Styles and Macros have vanished

G

Gregory Leck

Word 2007

I haven't done anything -- to my knowledge -- that would have caused this. It's as if Word was uninstalled and then subsequently reinstalled, or the settings set to some default.

I had a few custome Styles that appeared in the ribbon. Moreover, I had a few Macros that I had recorded, the whole of which were visible when I clicked the "Delevoper" tab and then clicked on the Macro button. All gone.

If anybody could point me in right direction, it would be much appreciated.
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

These would have been stored in Normal.dotm--unless you specified a
different template when you created the custom styles and macros. Did you
delete or rename that file? Are you (perhaps) starting Word either using the
/a switch or in Safe mode? Either of those would suppress Normal.dotm from
being opened.

If you stored the macros and styles in a different template (or in a
document), then they would show up only when editing a document based on
that template (or when editing that document).

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


Word 2007

I haven't done anything -- to my knowledge -- that would have caused this.
It's as if Word was uninstalled and then subsequently reinstalled, or the
settings set to some default.

I had a few custome Styles that appeared in the ribbon. Moreover, I had a
few Macros that I had recorded, the whole of which were visible when I
clicked the "Delevoper" tab and then clicked on the Macro button. All gone.

If anybody could point me in right direction, it would be much appreciated.
 
G

Gregory Leck

Thank you for your reply.

I have to admit that even though I purchased Office a few months ago, I'm just now in the process of getting under the hood, so to speak. Previously, I used WordPerfect (since ver. 7.0).

To my knowledge I did not delete nor rename Normal.dotm. Last Thursday, we experienced several power outages. After the first two power failures, I unplugged the computer. Word was probably running during the first power outage. Any chance that Normal.dotm was corrupted and summarily written over during a reboot?
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

Yes. This might happen if the AutoRecover feature is not being used or if it
had not yet had time to kick in (default interval is 10 minutes) between the
last time you saved and the plug pull. So, yes. There is a chance that
pulling the plug rather than closing Word normally could have caused the
problem. Note that Word is not alone in this respect... there are a number
of programs that can lose important files if they are not closed
judiciously.

If you don't have one... I would recommend buying a UPS. Even a
short-backup-time cheapo (under $50) would give you enough time to close
programs safely before losing power. My power is exceedingly unreliable, so
I wouldn't think of working without one.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


Thank you for your reply.

I have to admit that even though I purchased Office a few months ago, I'm
just now in the process of getting under the hood, so to speak. Previously,
I used WordPerfect (since ver. 7.0).

To my knowledge I did not delete nor rename Normal.dotm. Last Thursday, we
experienced several power outages. After the first two power failures, I
unplugged the computer. Word was probably running during the first power
outage. Any chance that Normal.dotm was corrupted and summarily written over
during a reboot?
 
G

Graham Mayor

Herb said:
If you don't have one... I would recommend buying a UPS. Even a
short-backup-time cheapo (under $50) would give you enough time to
close programs safely before losing power. My power is exceedingly
unreliable, so I wouldn't think of working without one.
Click to expand...

We have an unreliable and uneven power supply which can damage electronic
components, so I agree 100%.

I had a cheapo one for several years and you tend to take it for granted, so
when the power went out (again) last week and the ******* thing didn't
catch the power outage and my computer crashed, I thought it time to replace
it with something better. The one I have now is somewhat larger and will
accommodate all my computer equipment, and has an easily replaceable
battery - but it is a bit fussy which USB port it is connected to and
doesn't like being connected to a hub.

If your PC has a serial port (fast disappearing on current PCs) then a
serially connected UPS may be a more reliable option (if you can find one)
as it uses a port that you are unlikely to use for anything else. I now have
to obtain a bus mounted USB2 card to replace the port that the current UPS
uses :(.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

My UPS has some sort of cable (serial, I think), along with its PowerChute
software, but I've never tried using it because I have never been able to
convince myself that I want my UPS thinking for me when the power goes out.
If I'm at the computer, I can handle shutdown myself. If I'm away from the
computer, there won't be any files open that will be harmed by a hard
shutdown. It is quite rare, however, for us to have a power outage long
enough to require shutdown (at least an unexpected one--during electrical
storms or in advance of a hurricane, you pretty much expect this and prepare
for it). A UPS has saved me from a lot of swearing at the increasingly
frequent split-second blips, though.
 
G

Graham Mayor

Our power supply tends to go out for periods of half an hour or more. On the
last occasion, which led to the replacement of the UPS, the power was out
for an hour, then on for half an hour then off again for a further twenty
minutes.

I don't sit at my computer all the time, so I need it to be shut down
cleanly. The connection to the PC allows the UPS to shut down the PC after a
pre-determined time. It saves all open files (that have been saved once) and
closes the applications before shutting Windows. On my current settings this
occurs after five minutes.

It could cause harm to the PC to simply pull the plug (which would be the
effect of the hard shut down you describe) Better to allow it to shut down
windows cleanly - and of course if you are sitting at the PC you can attend
to those files that need to be saved first. In my case if I am sitting at
the keyboard when the alarm goes, I simply click the sleep button on the
keyboard which is configured to hibernate the PC.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 
G

Gregory Leck

I managed to find the location of the dotm file. It's in a hidden folder (took me a few hours to figure that out). I found a file called normal.dotm.old. I removed the .old extension from that file and modified the name of the existing normal.dotm file. Word 2007 now reveals my modified styles in addition to the macros I created. So amazingly enough, I didn't lose any of my valued creations!

One last thing: One of my posts didn't show up so I would just like to reiterate to the good folks here: No, I didn't unplug my computer while it was on!

This has been a great learning experience!
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

The mystery now is WHAT exactly did you install that backed up your
normal.dotm file as normal.dotm.old. While I've done that a number of times
myself, I haven't run across anything else that does it "for" me.

In any event, it's good to see that you got your investment back.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


I managed to find the location of the dotm file. It's in a hidden folder
(took me a few hours to figure that out). I found a file called
normal.dotm.old. I removed the .old extension from that file and modified
the name of the existing normal.dotm file. Word 2007 now reveals my modified
styles in addition to the macros I created. So amazingly enough, I didn't
lose any of my valued creations!

One last thing: One of my posts didn't show up so I would just like to
reiterate to the good folks here: No, I didn't unplug my computer while it
was on!

This has been a great learning experience!
 
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