Can Word Run Without a Normal.dot?

[Albert Einstein]

Awhile ago, I had a problem with Microsoft Word 2003 so, suspecting
corruption in Normal.dot, I sent it to the Recycle Bin.

(As it turned out, my problem had nothing to do with Normal.dot.)

Anyway, I later did a search for all my .dot files and discovered, to my
surprise, that I had no Normal.dot anywhere on my hard drive.

Plenty of other .dot files, but no Normal.dot.

I was always told that Microsoft Word searches for Normal.dot when it
starts up and, finding none, it creates one.

Not this time.

I restored the Normal.dot that was in my recycle bin.

So how was Microsoft Word 2003 running with no Normal.dot?

Was this a miracle?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It wasn't really running without one. When Word creates a new Normal.dot, it
does it from hard-coded internal information. In some versions of Word,
Normal.dot is not created until you customize something that is stored
there. At that point, your Normal.dot diverges from the one held internally,
and so Word creates the actual file to hold your changes. Until then, it's
running on the stored internal values.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Graham Mayor]

If the normal template is not present Word opens with a default set of
configurations when run. The normal template is actually created when Word
is *closed*. If changes to the normal template are not made on exit from
Word then the new template is not saved and the cycle will restart next time
Word is opened. The default setting for Word is to automatically save the
normal template on closing, but if you have changed the option to prompt to
save the normal template and then choose not to save it, the conditions you
describe would pertain.

Incidentally normal.dot is by default a hidden file.


--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Terry Farrell]

If you go to Tools, Options, File Locations and check the setting for User
Templates, normal.dot will be found there.

But as the others have said, normal.dot is only created (in some versions of
Word) when you make a change that needs to be stored. Typically and setting
changes to Font or Page Setup will create a normal.dot IF you press the
DEFAULT button at the bottom of the Font or Page Setup dialogs.