First installation quirks

[MuzikJunky]

Hi. I have several questions. First of all, I was dumb and didn’t realize that you could uninstall Office 2004 when installing Office 2008. I trashed everything, including all the preference files, which I didn’t realize that Word 2008 could use, but my Normal template, for some reason, has remained.

1. I had it set up in Word 2004 that the blank document would vanish when I opened a new document. How do I get this behavior back?

2. Word 2004 didn’t save the Normal template every time I exited the program. Does 2008 need to save it every single time I quit?

Thanks very much. Peace.

 

[John McGhie]

I am missing a few things here....

1) What you are asking for is the default behaviour, and that's what I am
getting. What is happening for you?

2) Word will save the Normal template when it needs to, which will be
almost every time it launches. Normal.dotm is Word's per-user scratch-pad.
It saves it almost every time it opens it.

I don't think we can do anything about the second question: I am more
hopeful of helping you find a work-around for the first one.

Cheers

Hi. I have several questions. First of all, I was dumb and didn¹t realize that
you could uninstall Office 2004 when installing Office 2008. I trashed
everything, including all the preference files, which I didn¹t realize that
Word 2008 could use, but my Normal template, for some reason, has remained.

1. I had it set up in Word 2004 that the blank document would vanish when I
opened a new document. How do I get this behavior back?

2. Word 2004 didn¹t save the Normal template every time I exited the program.
Does 2008 need to save it every single time I quit?

Thanks very much. Peace.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[MuzikJunky]

Well, on the other machine on which I installed Office 2008, I removed 2004 through the installer, and the new-file-opening behavior is as it should be: when you open a file after launching the app, the window with the blank document disappears, and the document that you open replaces that first window. I don't need an additional window to remain open when I work on the document that I open. Which preference pane needs to be tweaked? Peace.

 

[John McGhie]

I don't know. I have never seen the behaviour. I don't think it's a
preference.

The rule is that if you do not make any change to the default document, the
next file you open will replace it.

If you have made a change, even one space, to the default document, Word
keeps it in case you want to save it. Could "something" be changing the
document before you open another?

Try this:

1) Quit all Microsoft applications.

2) Track down all instances of pre-2008 Normal template on your computer,
and drag them to your desktop. The file is called simply "Normal" and has
no extension.

3) Find and drag the file Normal.dotm to your desktop.

4) If the following files exist, Remove or rename them:

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (10)

~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Word Settings (11)

User/Library/Preferences/com.Microsoft.Word.plist

Whatever it is, that should clear it.

Sorry, I don't know...

Well, on the other machine on which I installed Office 2008, I removed 2004
through the installer, and the new-file-opening behavior is as it should be:
when you open a file after launching the app, the window with the blank
document disappears, and the document that you open replaces that first
window. I don't need an additional window to remain open when I work on the
document that I open. Which preference pane needs to be tweaked? Peace.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

2. Word 2004 didn’t save the Normal template every time I exited the program. Does 2008 need to save it every single time I quit?

Word 2004 *did* save it every time you quit, but there are a couple
things that could be annoying you in Word 2008:

a) it's showing a message that Normal.dotm is saving, and this takes
time and is aggravating. Nothing you can do about that, so far as I know.

b) it actually blocks quitting with a dialog that requires confirmation
from you to save Normal.dotm. If that's the issue, you can uncheck the
"prompt to save Normal" in Word | Preferences | Save.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Word 2004 *did* save it every time you quit

Actually, let me tweak that--it saved if there was something to save. As
you set up the program to fit you, with default fonts, toolbars, etc,
that's all making changes to Normal. Word 2008 will stop saving Normal
once you've got it all adjusted and stop changing Normal.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Might explain the behavior--in Word 2004 and 2008:

If you launch Word, see the Project Gallery already set to a blank Word
document, and hit OK, then that blank document does *not* vanish when
you immediately open a new document. Because you specifically told Word
you wanted a new document.

If you launch Word, see the Project Gallery already set to a blank Word
document, and hit Cancel, Word will create a blank document anyhow, but
that document *will* vanish when you immediately open a new document.

If you have the Project Gallery turned off, Word will create a blank
document on launch, but it will vanish when you immediately open a new
document.

New in Word 2008--if there are no documents open, Word will create a new
document when you switch to Word via the Dock. This doc will not vanish
if you immediately open a new document. You can avoid it by using
Cmd-Tab to switch to Word, instead of clicking on the Dock.

 

[MuzikJunky]

Thanks for your help. Apparently, I did modify the initial blank document that first time; the other times, the behavior was as it's supposed to be. I never use the Project Gallery because I'm used to Windows-like behavior on the Mac version of the Office suite. Twenty years of these habits is hard to break.

The Ask to Save the Normal Template option is always off, and I was curious why it said it was saving it each time I quit the program. On 2004, it says, "Word is connecting to the printer." I guess it's the same thing.

Thanks for your responses. Peace.