Templet Strangeness: Cannot recreate 'blank' normal templet

[steven.k.nunez]

Greetings All,

I've just been through all the FAQ and readme's I could find on
templets, but am still seeing some odd behavior.

For some reason, my normal templet seems to be 'corrupt'. By that I
mean that it works, but the styles are frozen. I suspect that somehow
this is related to a customer templet that I used when I first
installed Office 2008, because the styles I can't get rid of are their
styles.

I'm running the latest version of Office and MacOS, and have deleted
normal.dotm. When I start-up word again though, it still has the old
styles! The new normal.dotm, created after Word quits, has the same
formatting. When I say 'styles' here, I'm referring to font and colour
that the headings have -- that's pretty much all that was in that
customers templet.

I've even created a new user and started word for the first time for
them, and they still have the same styles.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

Cheers,
- Steve

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Steve:

Styles are stored in the Document, and the Template.

Even if your Normal template is clean, tat will not remove any existing
styles from existing documents.

When Word creates a document, it copies various things from the Normal
template (or a different template if you choose one).

Word then preserves a link to that template so it can go back and get
anything its may need in the future.

But in fact it makes no further reference to the template, unless you force
it to, for the remainder of the life of the document.

Those styles will remain in the document until you delete them from each
document. They may not be used on any text, but they will remain in the
document. If they are not used on any text, there is no need to think about
them, just leave them there. Each style occupies only few bytes.

Cheers

Greetings All,

I've just been through all the FAQ and readme's I could find on
templets, but am still seeing some odd behavior.

For some reason, my normal templet seems to be 'corrupt'. By that I
mean that it works, but the styles are frozen. I suspect that somehow
this is related to a customer templet that I used when I first
installed Office 2008, because the styles I can't get rid of are their
styles.

I'm running the latest version of Office and MacOS, and have deleted
normal.dotm. When I start-up word again though, it still has the old
styles! The new normal.dotm, created after Word quits, has the same
formatting. When I say 'styles' here, I'm referring to font and colour
that the headings have -- that's pretty much all that was in that
customers templet.

I've even created a new user and started word for the first time for
them, and they still have the same styles.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before?

Cheers,
- Steve

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Additional to John's information - since I didn't see this explicitly stated
there - Word incorporates *dozens* of built-in styles. There are far more
than just the few that appear in the Styles list by default. Although the
built-in styles can be modified they can't be deleted. Perhaps what you're
seeing are some of those.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Steven,

Further to what Bob and John have said, and despite my not knowing what you
mean by "the styles are frozen": if the appearance of Word's various styles
doesn't suit you (and they probably won't unless you're sending ransom
notes), get stuck into them and change them!

Word is essentially a powerful, styles-based piece of software, and if you
want to save lots of time and effort -- I save about 20% compared with not
using them and other efficiency features -- the investment of a few hours
into mastering styles really pays off. Take a look at 'Styles and templates
‹ the keys to consistency and saving time', starting on page 89 of some
notes on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will",
which are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Note: In Word 2008, which I don't use yet, some of this information may be
accessible through a different interface, but not much has changed.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[Katherine Turner]

Greetings All,





I've just been through all the FAQ and readme's I could find on templets,
but am still seeing some odd behavior.





For some reason, my normal templet seems to be 'corrupt'. By that I mean
that it works, but the styles are frozen. I suspect that somehow this
is related to a customer templet that I used when I first installed Office
2008, because the styles I can't get rid of are their styles.





I'm running the latest version of Office and MacOS, and have deleted normal.dotm.
When I start-up word again though, it still has the old styles! The new
normal.dotm, created after Word quits, has the same formatting. When I
say 'styles' here, I'm referring to font and colour that the headings
have -- that's pretty much all that was in that customers templet.





I've even created a new user and started word for the first time for them,
and they still have the same styles.





Has anyone seen this behaviour before?





Cheers, - Steve

 

[Katherine Turner]

Greetings All, > > I've just been through all the FAQ and readme's I

could find on > templets, but am still seeing some odd behavior. > > For
some reason, my normal templet seems to be 'corrupt'. By that I > mean
that it works, but the styles are frozen. I suspect that somehow > this
is related to a customer templet that I used when I first > installed
Office 2008, because the styles I can't get rid of are their > styles.

normal.dotm. When I start-up word again though, it still has the old
styles! The new normal.dotm, created after Word quits, has the same
formatting. When I say 'styles' here, I'm referring to font and colour
that the headings have -- that's pretty much all that was in that >

customers templet. > > I've even created a new user and started word for
the first time for > them, and they still have the same styles. > > Has
anyone seen this behaviour before? > > Cheers, > - Steve >




Hi Steve,
I have a similar problem that I am unable to fix. I created a new document last week (one of many) but this word document has become fixed and will not go away. When I open up a new blank document it opens up every time and I have to select all and delete to recreate a blank document. It is driving me crazy and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. Simple things like deleting the text don't work. Sorry I can't help you but I was somewhat relieved that your problem sounded rather like mine. Where do you think we can get help?
Katherine

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Katherine -

Your problem is decidedly different from Steve's but the solution - though
simple - varies depending on version. As Clive advised it would have been
better to post a NEW message stating all particulars. When you REPLY to
another post it deprives us of any details you don't write explicitly into
your message.

However, see the info here on testing/replacing your Normal template... It
sounds like you've accidentally save the content of a previous file to it:

http://word.mvps.org/mac/MacWordNormal.html

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac