Normal.dot says it's saving changes, but the changes are not saved

[Starbird]

I have made a font and margin change in page setup, selected default, said
yes to do you want to save the changes to normal.dot, but when I open a new
document, the old font and margin settings are in effect.

What do I need to do to make my normal.dot retain the change?

Thanks for any assistance!

 

[Word Heretic]

G'day "Starbird" <[email protected]>,

The best bet is to not use normal to base new documents on and create
a template dedicated to the job. Then would use File > New >
MyTemplateName to create a new document.

Steve Hudson - Word Heretic

steve from wordheretic.com (Email replies require payment)
Without prejudice


Starbird reckoned:

 

[Chuck]

Sorry, meant to say ... could result in your changes not being saved to the
active normal.dot.

 

[Chuck]

Are you on a network and is your normal.dot automatically downloaded during a
login script?

Do you by any chance have more than one normal.dot on your c:\ drive or is
your User Templates path (Tools > Options > File locations) set to another
path than the one that contains the normal.dot you changed?

Did you crash out of Word after making the change you mentioned?

Any of the above could result in your changes not being saved to normal.dot.

Have you tried repeatedly to make the changes or did you just try the one
time?

 

[Starbird]

Thanks for your options... none of the things you mentioned should be at
issue here. We tried multiple times same day within minutes of each other -
my normal.dot is not overwritten w/ a login script. The directory is same and
there were no crashes. Steve also answered this and suggested I make a
separate template for my use with the settings I prefer - I just don't
understand why a simple save on a default for normal.dot doesn't happen -
just want to be able to answer questions.

 

[Chuck]

Sorry, I'm stumped. Should work.

Thanks for your options... none of the things you mentioned should be at
issue here. We tried multiple times same day within minutes of each other -
my normal.dot is not overwritten w/ a login script. The directory is same and
there were no crashes. Steve also answered this and suggested I make a
separate template for my use with the settings I prefer - I just don't
understand why a simple save on a default for normal.dot doesn't happen -
just want to be able to answer questions.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Like Steve, I recommend using a different template. However, any chance you
have Adobe Acrobat 7 installed?
--
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

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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[Starbird]

Yes, I do have adobe 7 installed,
however this in addition to some research I have been doing in the MPV site
has raised a different question --
Can I get Word to open a different .dot, (one that I set my prefered
settings in) by default when I ask to open a new blank document?

Thanks so much for all the help, I'm learning so much about Word and why it
does what it does!

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Word will always load normal.dot. If it doesn't exist, it will be created.
Not all settings are stored there, though. You can keep a lot of
customization in a different global template which will also be loaded when
Word starts. See http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for
step-by-step instructions on moving / sharing / copying / backing-up
customizations including AutoText, AutoCorrect, keyboard assignments,
toolbars, macros, etc.

You can use a different template as the basis for your document. 95% or more
of my documents are based on some template other than normal.dot. I
generally only use documents based on normal.dot for scratch work. My
customizations of font, styles, margins, etc., are stored in the custom
document templates, not in normal.dot.

The reason I asked about Adobe 7 is that it blocks changes to normal.dot.
There is a fix - of sorts - on Graham Mayor's site.

Also, existing documents usually are not changed by formatting changes in
their attached templates, whether that is normal.dot or another template.
For more on the different kinds of templates, tabs on the file new dialog,
and locations of templates folders see
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm.

 

[Starbird]

Thank you so much Charles for all of your help. The more I learn the less I
know!!!
The links you provided were very helpful!

 

[Charles Kenyon]

You are welcome. Time for me to get to sleep. G'nite.
--
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

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.