Changing Normal Document

[Pastor_Vinny]

How do you change the "New Document" in Word?

My old method of changing "Normal" and saving doesn't work in 2008

It seems it should be changing the Normal.dotm in the Microsoft Folder in Application Support.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

What do you want to change?

You can open up the Normal.dotm file that you mention and make your
changes there.

(If your old method was to create a doc and save it as a template named
Normal, that was a bad method, with hidden problems you just never ran into)

 

[EulerPhi8]

What do you want to change?

You can open up the Normal.dotm file that you mention and make your
changes there.

(If your old method was to create a doc and save it as a template named
Normal, that was a bad method, with hidden problems you just never ran into)

I tried saving Document1 as Normal.dotm, but a dialog pops up that
says "Word cannot give a document the same name as an open document."
I also tried saving it as another name and renaming it to Normal.dotm
but that just crashed word. How do I change Normal.dotm then? I don't
like the default 10pt line spacing between paragraphs in Word 2008.

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm afraid you're going to need to provide a more accurate explanation of
what it is that you don't like & what you want to change it to...

As in prior versions the default (Normal) paragraph style doesn't include
any "10 pt line spacing between paragraphs".

Also, you've hijacked a thread pertaining to a somewhat related but
completely different subject, so when you post back please submit as a new
post with a clear Subject. It makes it better for everyone, including
yourself, rather than posting your issue a reply to another post

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

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I tried saving Document1 as Normal.dotm,

Yeah, that was *always* a bad idea. It's a good thing that it doesn't
work anymore, because it used to cause problems down the line, by when
people had totally forgotten they did that.

How do I change Normal.dotm then? I don't
like the default 10pt line spacing between paragraphs in Word 2008.

As I said, find the existing Normal.dotm. It's somewhere in
username/library/application support/microsoft .

Open it up. Make your changes in it. Type a few letters and then delete
them to ensure Word knows there is something to save in case a format
change doesn't dirty it.

Save it and close.

Create a new doc. It will use the settings you just put in Normal.dotm.

Daiya

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

As I said, find the existing Normal.dotm. It's somewhere in
username/library/application support/microsoft .
Open it up.

Oops--one more thing--to open Normal.dotm, you'll need to use File |
Open and navigate to it from within Word. Double-clicking it will simply
create a new document (new in 2008).

Once open, make your customizations to font, style, etc and save.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

How do I change Normal.dotm then? I don't
like the default 10pt line spacing between paragraphs in Word 2008.

Alternative approach--bring up Format | Style, make sure Normal is
selected, click Modify, check the "add to template" box, and use the
Format menu in the dialog to change the default space after in the style
definition.

Checking "add to template" will make this apply to the default
Normal.dotm template.

 

[Pastorvinny]

Thanks everyone! I was able to create a Normal.dotm by using the drop down menu that says "Word-macro enabled dotm". I trashed the old one in "My Templates" and now I am a go!

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Did you read the part where I said that was a bad idea? A Normal
template that you have created yourself does not have all the features
of a Normal template created by Word.

I suggested two methods to change the existing Normal template.