Change to Normal template

[Daniel Cohen]

Running Mac OS 10.4.5, Word 10.1.6.

Lately, every time I quit Word I get the message "Changes have been made
that affect the global template Normal. Do you want to save these
changes?"

This happens even after the following steps. Shutdown and restart Mac
(which I wanted to do for other reasons). Open Word and immediately quit
it.

I had replaced the Normal template by a different one (still named
Normal) about a week ago. Perhaps that is the cause. I note that the
full name of my new template is Normal.dot, but set up to have the
extension hidden, and maybe the extension should not even be there.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hmm. Several points:

You should *not* create a file, try to save it as Normal, and pretend it is
the Normal template. Normal has special properties and you should always
let Word generate one, which it will do if it cannot find one on launch.

I *think* that what is happening is you launch Word, it looks for Normal,
can't find one, and thus creates a new one (because Word *cannot* function
without a Normal template).

On quit, Word asks for permission to save the Normal that it just created.
That's the dialog you are getting. If you say No, then it just throws away
the new Normal, and you never see that Word is creating that file in the
background.

You can stop Word from asking for permission via an option in Word |
Preferences | Save ("prompt to save Normal template"), but then it will just
automatically save all changes to the Normal template on quit.

It is possible to make Word recognize a Normal that you created, it's just
not a good idea and rarely necessary. I'm not sure whether the extension or
the location is the stumbling block in your setup.

However, if you want to customize your Normal template, as any
right-thinking user of Word does, let Word create a Normal template and then
make customizations to that. Where dialogs have a Default button, that will
save the changes to Normal, or you can just open up Normal and make changes.
More info on Normal:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/MacWordNormal.html

If you did a lot of customization in your created Normal, and don't want to
redo the work, you can transfer some of it (see the link re Normal), or you
can just make that created Normal a global template.
http://word.mvps.org/mac/GlobalTemplate.html

Hope that helps,

 

[Daniel Cohen]

Hmm. Several points:

You should *not* create a file, try to save it as Normal, and pretend it is
the Normal template. Normal has special properties and you should always
let Word generate one, which it will do if it cannot find one on launch.

Thanks for your reply. With its help, I got the Normal template to
function as I wanted. Not just the paragraph styles, but window size,
magnification, etc.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

However, if you want to customize your Normal template, as any
right-thinking user of Word does, let Word create a Normal template
and then make customizations to that.

I *really* beg to differ, here.

Normal, being a scratch sheet that is written to whenever Word is open,
is *certain* to become corrupted over time - usually a rather short time.

Global templates, OTOH, almost *never* become corrupted.

Therefore, any "right-thinking" Word user will *not* want to depend on
Normal for any customizations, but rather will save him/herself a TON of
heartache by using global templates.

A standard argument is that making a backup of Normal will solve this
problem, it's mostly a stop-gap. One doesn't discover corruption until
one is *using* Word, by which time you may or may not have created
additional problems with your documents. While making and restoring a
backup, will work, it's a labor intensive process:

- First, recognize that Normal has corrupted. This may or may not be
obvious at startup. It's usually noticed during real work, when
following the next steps is a real productivity drain.

- Second, save the document you're working on and quit Word

- Find Normal (this gets easier over time, since Normal corrupts so
frequently.

- Trash Normal

- Empty the Trash

- Copy a backup of Normal and rename it (to Normal). Wondering,
meanwhile, if a tiny bit of corruption hasn't crept into *that* file
after performing multiple edits.

- Restart Word

- Open your document and verify proper behavior.

Why bother with all this nonsense? Stick all your customizations in
global templates, and use Document templates to create your docs.

I have a folder action to delete Normal whenever it's created. That way
I'm assured of a fresh, uncorrupted Normal each time I open Word.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I *really* beg to differ, here.

Normal, being a scratch sheet that is written to whenever Word is open,
is *certain* to become corrupted over time - usually a rather short time.

Global templates, OTOH, almost *never* become corrupted.

Therefore, any "right-thinking" Word user will *not* want to depend on
Normal for any customizations, but rather will save him/herself a TON of
heartache by using global templates.

Ah, full agreement. Creating a Global Template is certainly a better idea
than customizing Normal, even if you back it up daily.

JE's instructions for creating such a global template are here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/GlobalTemplate.html

Daiya

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hmmm... Intellectually, I agree with John. A global add-inn (or even, a
series of attached templates) is the "proper" way to do this.

However, this is somewhat a case of "Do what I say, not what I do..." I
have had all my customisations in Normal template for some years. The
Normal template I use is a variation of one I began at the ASX in Year 2000.

My reason for this is purely laziness. With everything in one bucket, I
only have to carry one file with me from site to site. And with everything
in Normal, I don't have to pick my way through a maze of macro warnings,
security considerations and permission issues. The problem is worse on the
Mac because the design of its template mechanism is utterly broken for
corporate use.

The PC template is still going strong after all of these years of aggressive
updates. The Mac template does go bang every few months: Mac Word 2004
seems to have a problem with Normal template corruption. However, it is
more likely that the corruption I experience is due to the fact that I am
constantly fiddling with it to try out things for the newsgroup posting I do
here.

That said, *when* it goes bang, I simply re-name it. I then allow Word to
create a new Normal template, and use Organiser to bring the styles,
toolbars and macros back from the old one.

What I am saying is that I have come to the belief that expecting or
advising users to do it the "right" way is too difficult. Unless the user
is in a professional documentation workgroup, the learning curve is just too
steep. There's layer after layer of "considerations" and "practices"
involved in getting this working properly.

In a professional documentation workgroup, there will be policies,
processes, procedures and infrastructure in place. Everyone is
appropriately trained, and network resources are correctly permission to
make this work method straightforward.

But I believe many of our users are on their own: often at home. They don't
have skilled system administrators with an understanding of documentation
workflows, verified and reliable backup regimes, documented workflows or
even a disaster recovery plan. Sometimes our users are "The only one in the
company who cares about documentation" or "the only one in the company using
a Mac".

I think we need to keep it simple. Offer advice that makes it "just work".
And flame the hell out of Microsoft until it "just works reliably"

I have high hopes for the next version of Office. The new XML-based file
formats in Office 12 are not only practically immune to corruption, they
have vary substantial self-healing ability.

Just my thoughts

Ah, full agreement. Creating a Global Template is certainly a better idea
than customizing Normal, even if you back it up daily.

JE's instructions for creating such a global template are here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/GlobalTemplate.html

Daiya

--

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

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Daniel Cohen]

Creating a Global Template is certainly a better idea
than customizing Normal, even if you back it up daily.

OK, I understand the arguments.

Can one set Word so that, on initial opening and on cmd-N, it opens in a
specific global template?

I don't weant to have to choose a template from the Project Gallery each
time.