Normal.dot

G

Guest

Error message: Changes have been made that affect the
global template, Normal.dot. Do you want to save those
changes?

Can anybody please explainthis problem for me? It is
causing me a great deal of aggravation - I have no idea
what I have done.

Many, many thanks, Martin.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

This is not an "error message." It is a prompt to save the Normal template.
If you have in fact made changes (customizing menus or toolbars, adding
AutoText entries, modifying styles, recording a macro), then you want to
save Normal.dot. If you are sure you haven't changed anything, feel free to
say no. If you get this prompt *every* time you quit Word, the cause is
probably a poorly written add-in.
 
C

Charles Kenyon

The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning, not an
error code. It means that changes have been made, whether you intended to
make changes or not. You can also get it when your template has been altered
by a poorly written Add-In program or by a malicious virus.

The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a poorly
written Add-In. The Norton AV Office Plug-In seems to be the most frequent
offender recently, but that can change as some other poorly written program
comes on the market.

Other offenders include the MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, Adobe
Acrobat, and Microsoft's MetaData remover. These all install Add-Ins that
mess with your normal.dot when they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so.
Some of these are .dot files, others are installed. See <URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm> for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)

Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.

If not...

If you start Word using
Start => Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seing. When you close it, you won't get the
"normal.dot" prompt.

So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.

If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.

Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.

Hope this helps,
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

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