Document template is not valid (Word 2002)

[Kat]

Using Word 2002.

I have one user losing connection to our custom department template no
matter what. The document looks fine, retains styles and everything, but
loses custom toolbars and macros. No matter what I do, if I attempt to
reattach the template, I get the error message "The document template is not
valid". I've launched new documents on his machine from the template on the
server and from the template locally. Seems fine, but the custom toolbars are
nowhere to be found, and when I check Tools | Templates & Add-ins, it says
the document is based on Normal rather than the custom template.

My department accesses templates from a central network repository.
Everyone's got "Workgroup templates" set to the right location in
configuration. Everything's working just fine and has been for the past ten
months. Until today and this one user.

I've triple checked his configuration settings. Then I checked them again.
Then I reset them. I've tried dropping the template to the appropriate folder
on his machine. Still no good. This only happens on his machine. Works fine
on mine, no one else is reporting any issues (and I'd definitely have heard).

I've searched the knowledge base. I've searched every logical section of the
discussion groups. I've searched the MVP FAQs. I can't find a thing. I'm a
fairly advanced Word user, and I've tried everything I can think of. I built
the template and all macros in it and dictated configuration settings for the
team. No one else is having trouble, just this one user.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ed]

Hi Kat,

I had a problem not so long ago with a custom global template losing one of
its custom menu items and the problem turned out to be due to interference
from Normal.dot. Once I re-named Normal.dot the problem went. Maybe the
affected user's Normal is interfering in a similar way?

Regards.

Ed

 

[Kat]

Thanks, Ed, but I don't think that's the case. There's no overlap with any
functions in Normal. I was very careful to give all toolbars and macros
unique names (all start with the name of the custom template) to avoid
conflicting with Normal. I'll check it out though, since it's entirely
possible that I've misunderstood the issue that you saw.

I'm beginning to fear a hardware issue or a flat-out broken install of Word.

 

[Ed]

Hi Kat,

There's no overlap with any functions in Normal.

Yes, I wasn't being clear. The "interference" wasn't due to overlap; I
believe that my Normal.dot was just damaged in some odd way and the damage
was having a knock-on effect on my "innocent" custom template.

The advice to rename Normal.dot came from Shauna Kelly - have a look at the
thread and maybe something else in it might be of help.

The thread is here:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/mi...d541a?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#1fd4ff13ad8d541a

Regards.

Ed

 

[Kat]

Ed, you are my hero (and all hail Shauna Kelly). Thank you for the
clarification. Looks like that is my issue after all. I tried the fixes you
linked to, but sadly they didn't work. I stopped short of editing the
registry because my employers frown upon such things unless you're part of
the support team. We've got a call in now to get a reinstall on that machine,
since that appears to be the only option (tier 1 support in larger companies
is woefully uneducated about Word, and they refused to listen to the results
of my digging).

Anyway, thanks for helping put me on the right path. And thanks for
excellent use of the semicolon in your last post.

Kat

 

[Ed]

Hi Kat,

Hope you get it sorted.

And thanks for excellent use of the semicolon in your last post.

I got a huge supply of semicolons for my birthday so I try to use them
wherever I can ;-)

Regards.

Ed