change default margins

[mgp]

I'm using Word X for Mac and want to change the default margin
settings. The "office assistant" provides directions for changing the
default through the format/document/margins dialog box. I change the
margins to 1" and then click on default. It then asks if I want to
change the settings for the document layout and that it will affect
all new documents in the "normal template." I click on yes. So far so
good. When I quit Word, I get a warning that says changes have been
made that will affect the global template, Normal, and do I want to
save the changes. I click save. Then I get a dialog box that says the
file is read only, to save a copy click on ok and give the document a
new name in the dialog box. So far so good. Then a dialog box appears
that has save as: [cursor].dot. I type in a name like margin.dot. It
says save where: and "my templates" is showing. The "save" button is
not active, only the cancel button. If I change the "save where" to
documents, my home, or desktop, then the save button becomes
highlighted. I click on it, close word, reopen word, and the change is
not saved. WHAT am I doing wrong????

Please help!

mgp

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Your problem starts with the message about Normal being read-only. If you
can't save changes to Normal, you can't change the defaults, so don't worry
about what happens after that [or it's a separate issue, anyhow] Up to there
you are doing everything right.

Are you in a corporate environment where they control your settings and
computer, and might possibly have Normal set to read-only to enforce
standards? If so, this may not work.

Find Normal. It's probably in applications/ms office x/templates. Make
sure it isn't read-only (cmd-I to set permissions). Try your change again.
If it still doesn't work, Repair Permissions on your entire computer,
directions at:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskIssues.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If it still doesn't work, make sure you are finding the right Normal.
Directions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

DM

I'm using Word X for Mac and want to change the default margin
settings. The "office assistant" provides directions for changing the
default through the format/document/margins dialog box. I change the
margins to 1" and then click on default. It then asks if I want to
change the settings for the document layout and that it will affect
all new documents in the "normal template." I click on yes. So far so
good. When I quit Word, I get a warning that says changes have been
made that will affect the global template, Normal, and do I want to
save the changes. I click save. Then I get a dialog box that says the
file is read only, to save a copy click on ok and give the document a
new name in the dialog box. So far so good. Then a dialog box appears
that has save as: [cursor].dot. I type in a name like margin.dot. It
says save where: and "my templates" is showing. The "save" button is
not active, only the cancel button. If I change the "save where" to
documents, my home, or desktop, then the save button becomes
highlighted. I click on it, close word, reopen word, and the change is
not saved. WHAT am I doing wrong????

Please help!

mgp

 

[mgp]

Thanks for your help. Yes, apparently the settings were set by someone
else who installed Office on my computer. I'm in an education setting
and the person who takes care of our computers knows nothing about
Macs so would have no idea if he set the permissions or simply
installed the version of Office supplied by the university in
conjunction with our department's site license. So now the question
becomes, how do I unlock that read-only template? or change the
permission?

I understand why Microsoft incorporated these "permissions" and why it
would be important for a corporate user, but in my situation it only
complicates things unnecessarily. It doesn't appear that we had a
choice about installing the permissions or not.

Mary

Your problem starts with the message about Normal being read-only. If you
can't save changes to Normal, you can't change the defaults, so don't worry
about what happens after that [or it's a separate issue, anyhow] Up to there
you are doing everything right.

Are you in a corporate environment where they control your settings and
computer, and might possibly have Normal set to read-only to enforce
standards? If so, this may not work.

Find Normal. It's probably in applications/ms office x/templates. Make
sure it isn't read-only (cmd-I to set permissions). Try your change again.
If it still doesn't work, Repair Permissions on your entire computer,
directions at:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskIssues.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If it still doesn't work, make sure you are finding the right Normal.
Directions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

DM

I'm using Word X for Mac and want to change the default margin
settings. The "office assistant" provides directions for changing the
default through the format/document/margins dialog box. I change the
margins to 1" and then click on default. It then asks if I want to
change the settings for the document layout and that it will affect
all new documents in the "normal template." I click on yes. So far so
good. When I quit Word, I get a warning that says changes have been
made that will affect the global template, Normal, and do I want to
save the changes. I click save. Then I get a dialog box that says the
file is read only, to save a copy click on ok and give the document a
new name in the dialog box. So far so good. Then a dialog box appears
that has save as: [cursor].dot. I type in a name like margin.dot. It
says save where: and "my templates" is showing. The "save" button is
not active, only the cancel button. If I change the "save where" to
documents, my home, or desktop, then the save button becomes
highlighted. I click on it, close word, reopen word, and the change is
not saved. WHAT am I doing wrong????

Please help!

mgp

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Well, try the suggestions I gave you anyhow. See if they work. This
doesn't have much to do with the installation version, but a lot to do with
university IT policy. Permissions, by the way, are actually part of the OS,
and you should repair permissions occasionally as part of maintenance (or
whoever controls your computer should have it automated).
DM

Thanks for your help. Yes, apparently the settings were set by someone
else who installed Office on my computer. I'm in an education setting
and the person who takes care of our computers knows nothing about
Macs so would have no idea if he set the permissions or simply
installed the version of Office supplied by the university in
conjunction with our department's site license. So now the question
becomes, how do I unlock that read-only template? or change the
permission?

I understand why Microsoft incorporated these "permissions" and why it
would be important for a corporate user, but in my situation it only
complicates things unnecessarily. It doesn't appear that we had a
choice about installing the permissions or not.

Mary

Your problem starts with the message about Normal being read-only. If you
can't save changes to Normal, you can't change the defaults, so don't worry
about what happens after that [or it's a separate issue, anyhow] Up to there
you are doing everything right.

Are you in a corporate environment where they control your settings and
computer, and might possibly have Normal set to read-only to enforce
standards? If so, this may not work.

Find Normal. It's probably in applications/ms office x/templates. Make
sure it isn't read-only (cmd-I to set permissions). Try your change again.
If it still doesn't work, Repair Permissions on your entire computer,
directions at:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskIssues.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If it still doesn't work, make sure you are finding the right Normal.
Directions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

DM

I'm using Word X for Mac and want to change the default margin
settings. The "office assistant" provides directions for changing the
default through the format/document/margins dialog box. I change the
margins to 1" and then click on default. It then asks if I want to
change the settings for the document layout and that it will affect
all new documents in the "normal template." I click on yes. So far so
good. When I quit Word, I get a warning that says changes have been
made that will affect the global template, Normal, and do I want to
save the changes. I click save. Then I get a dialog box that says the
file is read only, to save a copy click on ok and give the document a
new name in the dialog box. So far so good. Then a dialog box appears
that has save as: [cursor].dot. I type in a name like margin.dot. It
says save where: and "my templates" is showing. The "save" button is
not active, only the cancel button. If I change the "save where" to
documents, my home, or desktop, then the save button becomes
highlighted. I click on it, close word, reopen word, and the change is
not saved. WHAT am I doing wrong????

Please help!

mgp

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Mary:

The easiest way is to move your User Templates location into your personal
Microsoft User Data folder (which is where it is supposed to be).

People installing Microsoft Office have to understand that the Normal
template is Word's PERSONAL scratch-pad for the user. If you set it
read-only, all sorts of problems occur, not the least of which are Word
crashes.

To move your user templates folder,:

1) Start Word

2) Close all except the default document (the one that opens when Word
starts).

3) Go to Word>Preferences>File Locations

4) Select the User Templates entry

5) Click Modify

6) Navigate to your Microsoft User Data folder. Unless you have moved it,
this will be in your user Documents folder

7) In there, you should find a folder named "Templates". If you don't,
create it.

8) Set your User Templates location to that location.

9) Quit Word and re-start. When you restart, Word will create a new Normal
template in that folder.

That's the simple procedure: come back if it does not work: there are
various other toxic things that system administrators can do that require
you to take stern measures to regain control. I wish they would all learn
not to do this, but they don't. So sometimes we have to add one or two
other steps to the above to be sure we have defeated the silly persons!

Cheers

Thanks for your help. Yes, apparently the settings were set by someone
else who installed Office on my computer. I'm in an education setting
and the person who takes care of our computers knows nothing about
Macs so would have no idea if he set the permissions or simply
installed the version of Office supplied by the university in
conjunction with our department's site license. So now the question
becomes, how do I unlock that read-only template? or change the
permission?

I understand why Microsoft incorporated these "permissions" and why it
would be important for a corporate user, but in my situation it only
complicates things unnecessarily. It doesn't appear that we had a
choice about installing the permissions or not.

Mary

Your problem starts with the message about Normal being read-only. If you
can't save changes to Normal, you can't change the defaults, so don't worry
about what happens after that [or it's a separate issue, anyhow] Up to there
you are doing everything right.

Are you in a corporate environment where they control your settings and
computer, and might possibly have Normal set to read-only to enforce
standards? If so, this may not work.

Find Normal. It's probably in applications/ms office x/templates. Make
sure it isn't read-only (cmd-I to set permissions). Try your change again.
If it still doesn't work, Repair Permissions on your entire computer,
directions at:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/DiskIssues.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

If it still doesn't work, make sure you are finding the right Normal.
Directions here:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/MacWordNormal.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

DM

I'm using Word X for Mac and want to change the default margin
settings. The "office assistant" provides directions for changing the
default through the format/document/margins dialog box. I change the
margins to 1" and then click on default. It then asks if I want to
change the settings for the document layout and that it will affect
all new documents in the "normal template." I click on yes. So far so
good. When I quit Word, I get a warning that says changes have been
made that will affect the global template, Normal, and do I want to
save the changes. I click save. Then I get a dialog box that says the
file is read only, to save a copy click on ok and give the document a
new name in the dialog box. So far so good. Then a dialog box appears
that has save as: [cursor].dot. I type in a name like margin.dot. It
says save where: and "my templates" is showing. The "save" button is
not active, only the cancel button. If I change the "save where" to
documents, my home, or desktop, then the save button becomes
highlighted. I click on it, close word, reopen word, and the change is
not saved. WHAT am I doing wrong????

Please help!

mgp

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Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410