changing the normal.dot

[Grace]

Hi

I have previously set up a macro to appear in my normal.dot. I set up the
macro and place the template in my Word startup folder. Each time I launch
Word (2003) the macro appears.

Now I want to change the font of my normal.dot from Times new Roman to Book
Antiqua, also change margins and add a page number. I've done this and placed
the template containing the changes in my start up folder. But when I launch
Word the font is still Times and there are no page numbers.

What am I doing wrong? Should I be saving the changes as a document rather
than a template and putting it in the start up folder?

 

[Jay Freedman]

There should be only one normal.dot template anywhere on your machine,
and that should be in the User Templates folder (as indicated in the
Tools > Options > File Locations dialog). The copy of normal.dot that
you put into the Startup folder is being treated as a "global add-in",
but it is _not_ being used as the base for new documents -- the one in
the User Templates folder is being used for that.

The easiest way to repair your situation is:

(a) Rename the normal.dot in the Startup folder to any other name, so
you don't get confused any further. This won't affect the macro, which
will still run.

(b) Change the font and margins in the "real" normal.dot in the User
Templates folder. See
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm.

By the way, if you ever use the Labels dialog, you should not put page
numbers or anything else in the header or footer of normal.dot, as
that will mess up the location of the table cells that are supposed to
match the labels.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Grace]

Thank you for responding to my post, Jay. It always sounds so obvious when
someone who knows what they are doing explains it to me. And thanks for the
tip about page numbering. I never thought of the problem it would cause using
labels. I won't be doing that then.

 

[Grace]

Jay, I have another question - if you don't mind?

If I want keyboard shortcuts to appear each time I launch Word, do I save
them in the start up folder as (for example) 'keyboard shortcuts.dot' or
'keyboard shortcuts.doc'?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Save the shortcuts in a template (.dot file) in the startup folder. A
document stored there won't do anything (Word loads only templates
from that folder).

The article at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm may
help you to understand what goes where.

By the way, making a template isn't just a matter of changing the
extension from .doc to .dot. Use the "Save as type" dropdown in the
File > Save dialog to choose Word Template as the file type. Word will
automatically choose the .dot extension and will switch to the User
Template folder (from which you'll have to navigate to the Startup
folder manually, or add the Startup folder to the Places Bar on the
left).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Grace]

Cheers.
--
Thanks
Grace

Save the shortcuts in a template (.dot file) in the startup folder. A
document stored there won't do anything (Word loads only templates
from that folder).

The article at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm may
help you to understand what goes where.

By the way, making a template isn't just a matter of changing the
extension from .doc to .dot. Use the "Save as type" dropdown in the
File > Save dialog to choose Word Template as the file type. Word will
automatically choose the .dot extension and will switch to the User
Template folder (from which you'll have to navigate to the Startup
folder manually, or add the Startup folder to the Places Bar on the
left).

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.