How to permanently get rid of this message: "...replace existing Normal"

[Pitch]

Usually-not always- whenever I try to quit Word 2004, I get often
get the message:

Do you want to replace the existing "Normal"?


Ignoring the "Hey, that's clear as mud!" issue here, is there way to
set up Word so that message never arises again?

I'm open to any thing. Changing preferences, creating a new template to
work in, anything. If possible, spell out the steps clearly, especially
if it requires using another default template.

Many thanks! Both me and my sanity are grateful.

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi there,
unchecking the "Prompt to save Normal template" option in Preferences,
"Save" section, should solve your problem.

Michel

 

[matt neuburg]

Hi there,
unchecking the "Prompt to save Normal template" option in Preferences,
"Save" section, should solve your problem.

That may hide the message, but it does not explain why this user is
getting this message. I'd be a little worried there there's possibly
something else wrong in this story. m.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Well, it's a known bug. I had it forever in Word X myself. It seems OK for
me in 2004, so I don't know if the bug has been fixed (in which case, yes,
Pitch should be concerned), or not.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
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Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Tim Murray]

Usually-not always- whenever I try to quit Word 2004, I get often
get the message:

Do you want to replace the existing "Normal"?


Ignoring the "Hey, that's clear as mud!" issue here, is there way to
set up Word so that message never arises again?

Are you sure you really want to do this? This is an indication of change. You
may one day do something that you do NOT want to commit to the Normal
template, and if the message is not there, you will not have a choice. And
besides, it's adds only a single keystroke ... it's not like it's some
complex dialog or anything.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Usually-not always- whenever I try to quit Word 2004, I get often

Are you sure you really want to do this? This is an indication of change. You
may one day do something that you do NOT want to commit to the Normal
template, and if the message is not there, you will not have a choice. And
besides, it's adds only a single keystroke ... it's not like it's some
complex dialog or anything.

It's very annoying, though--I hit Shut Down and it gets canceled because of
that message. That's why it's a problem, I bet.

 

[Tim Murray]

It's very annoying, though--I hit Shut Down and it gets canceled because
of that message. That's why it's a problem, I bet.

I don't trust Microsoft's products enough to interact properly with a
shut-down process, or anyone else's process, for that matter. In other words,
I *always* exit the app before shutting down.

 

[Pitch]

Are you sure you really want to do this?

I am *so* sure, Tim. I don't care if the Normal template turned yellow
and upside down. Replacing it is as easy as removing it to the trash.
And as Daiya noted, it makes auto shutdown impossible to trust if Word
is open. I'd prefer if Word didn't tell me if I have made changes to my
templates.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Okay, admittedly, the symptom has been treated, but the problem remains.

Usually-not always- whenever I try to quit Word 2004, I get often
get the message:

Do you want to replace the existing "Normal"?

First of all, is that *really* the message you get? Because the one I get,
after making a change that needs to be saved to Normal, says "Changes have
been made that affect the global template, "Normal". Do you want to save
those changes?"

And that actually is very clear. So your message (if that is accurate)
suggests that something is *seriously* changing your Normal template, and
it's not a good thing if there's a third-party program making unauthorized
changes to Normal.

The only way it would not matter is if:
A) you never make any customizations to Word at all
or
B) you are like JE and carefully arrange all your customizations so that
Normal is irrelevant

 

[Pitch]

Thanks for the response, Daiya. Most grateful!

Yes, absolutely: the message I get is exactly

Do you want to replace the existing "Normal"?

I've never seen the message you are getting. I don't even know if I've
ever heard of a "global template."

Hmm. Well I wonder where, and how, my Normal template is being changed.
I don't purposely change any of the Styles. Certainly no window comes
up, in the course of the day, saying "You are about to change the
template. Are you sure" or any such thing.

I guess my next question is: is there any way to lock a template so
that no changes can possibly ever be made?

Would it be better if I created a personalized template, and use that?
I'll do whatever it might take to not get these messages.

 

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

Hi Pitch:

OK, a "Global" template is a class of templates whose resources are
available to all open documents in Word, as opposed to an "Attached
Template" that needs to be explicitly attached to each individual document
and whose resources are available only to the documents to which they are
attached.

Global templates are normally loaded as add-ins, usually by placing them in
the Word Startup folder, from which they will be automatically loaded at
application launch.

The Normal template is a special case of global template. It resides in the
User Templates folder, not in the Startup folder. And it must always be
loaded or Word cannot run. Which means that if Word cannot find or load it,
it will create a new one when the application launches. The Normal template
has another ability: it can be one of the "Non-File" templates. In other
words, it need not exist as a file. You will almost never see this on the
Mac, but if Word creates a default standard template, and no changes to it
are made by either Word or the user, the template exists only in memory and
will not be saved as a file.

Because of the above, the Normal template has one further special attribute:
Word uses it as the personal scratch-pad in which it stores a wide range of
settings and resources for the logged-in user.

Knowing all of this, you can see that it's a seriously bad idea to render
the Normal template read-only. You cannot prevent changes to Normal: Word
will update the copy in memory constantly while it works. However, if the
copy on disk is read-only, two problems will occur:

1) Just after lunch, the number of pending changes to Normal will start to
run Word out of memory or file handles. You will get slow-downs, crashes,
poor performance from other applications, and "unable to save" messages.

2) You will get stalled at "Do you wish to save changes?" dialog each time
you quit Word.

You can prevent the second by intercepting the Application Quit event and
declaring Application.NormalTemplate.Saved = True

If you do, Word will start to crash over time, because various pointers and
resources that should have been stored in the Normal template will become
inconsistent with the actual contents of those resources on your system.

So: To solve your problem, turn OFF the "Prompt to save Normal" prompt,
make sure your Normal template file is not set to Read-only, and make sure
that you have RWX permissions to the folder it is in and that no other user
has access to it (if another user has the Normal template open when you try
to quit, you will get the problem you are discussing).

Best practice is to ensure that no other user CAN get access to your Normal
template by placing it in a folder to which only you have access.
Inexperienced system administrators sometimes create problems in this
regard, either by pointing all users at the same instance of Normal Template
on the network, or by placing a copy of the Normal template in the same
folder as the application executable. On launch, Word searches a hierarchy
of locations for its templates: the first of which is the application
folder. If it finds a Normal there, that's the one it loads, and it is
often read-only and so gives problems.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the response, Daiya. Most grateful!

Yes, absolutely: the message I get is exactly

I've never seen the message you are getting. I don't even know if I've
ever heard of a "global template."

Hmm. Well I wonder where, and how, my Normal template is being changed.
I don't purposely change any of the Styles. Certainly no window comes
up, in the course of the day, saying "You are about to change the
template. Are you sure" or any such thing.

I guess my next question is: is there any way to lock a template so
that no changes can possibly ever be made?

Would it be better if I created a personalized template, and use that?
I'll do whatever it might take to not get these messages.

--

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 4 1209 1410

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 11/6/05 1:35 PM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Pitch"

Would it be better if I created a personalized template, and use that?
I'll do whatever it might take to not get these messages.

If you did, you won't get a comparable message to the one you are annoyed by
in relation to the Normal template.

And on my computer I don't get a warning re Normal if I've attached the
document to my own template.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 7 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Daiya Mitchell]

Can you just clarify--did turning off the prompt to save Normal (as Michel
suggested) stop the message from appearing?

because of a permissions error, like John said:

So: To solve your problem, turn OFF the "Prompt to save Normal" prompt,
make sure your Normal template file is not set to Read-only, and make sure
that you have RWX permissions to the folder it is in and that no other user
has access to it (if another user has the Normal template open when you try
to quit, you will get the problem you are discussing).

(Except I think if you turn OFF the prompt to save normal, you will never
know whether the problem is still there? So perhaps turn it on to check)

For more education about global templates (slanted practical rather than
John's technical)
Start here:
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/macoffice/word/globaltemplate.html

And/or scroll down to the About Templates section of this link:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/BackUpPrefs.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Also use that last link to check where your Normal template is actually
located, if you can't find it.

Just fyi:

Certainly no window comes
up, in the course of the day, saying "You are about to change the
template. Are you sure" or any such thing.

Those messages don't exactly come up anyhow. For certain changes, Word
produces a dialog that says something like "these changes will apply to all
new documents. Continue?" but it's mostly just when you hit the Default...
button out of the Format| Font, or Tools | Language dialogs, or some other
dialogs. Styles, macros, and keyboard changes have (unobtrusive) settings
in the dialogs that state they will be saved in a template, so the only
additional sign there is the "save changes to Normal?" dialog on quit.

Daiya