Issue with Normal.dot

[LaurenM]

Hi all,

I have a user who keeps receiving the message that there were changes to the
normal.dot and does she want to save the changes. To her knowledge, she does
not make any changes to the document so she picks "No" most of the time but
she picks "Yes" somes. However, the message keeps popping up. Usually after
the message goes away, she can't open up any Word docs or save any Word
documents and her computer gets more and more difficult to work with. For
example, other applications will open in "Read Only" even if she has access
to save the documents. A restart will solve the problem temporarliy but then
the problems start up again. I have tried to replace the normal.dot but this
doesn't make the issue go away. I have also deleted any temp files but still
the issue continues.

She is using a Windows XP operating system and is using Office 2003. If
anyone can shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!
LaurenM

 

[Terry Farrell]

Usually this is due to a badly written and tested third party add-in. Adobe
are infamous for this as is Norton (Symantec) and several others.

Test by running in Safe Mode. From Start, Run (Winkey+R), type in

winword /a

and press enter. Open a document and test for editing and closing now. If it
is OK now, then you have installed something that has placed an incompatible
add-in in Word/Office.

See how to find add-ins

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx

 

[LaurenM]

Thanks for your response, Terry. I will check out the articles and hopefully
a solution will be in there!

I appreciate yout time.

LaurenM

 

[Cyn]

My similar problems with Word 2007 continue even in "Safe Mode." I've had to give up and use Open Office Writer for documents created with 2003, etc., and which were created with templates. It's very annoying, but even the higher level Microsoft techs couldn’t help. Doesn't appear to be add in related according to this suggestion, so...it'll just continue to be an unsolved mystery!

--
Cynthia Dagnal Myron
Faculty
University of Phoenix
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
520-241-0126



Thanks for your response, Terry. I will check out the articles and hopefully
a solution will be in there!

I appreciate yout time.

LaurenM

 

[Terry Farrell]

There is absolutely no way that Word is prompting you to save changes to normal.dotm when you are opened in Safe Mode. It doesn't exist in Safe Mode - so your problem cannot possibly be the same as Lauren's, so please don't cloud her issue.

Terry
My similar problems with Word 2007 continue even in "Safe Mode." I've had to give up and use Open Office Writer for documents created with 2003, etc., and which were created with templates. It's very annoying, but even the higher level Microsoft techs couldn’t help. Doesn't appear to be add in related according to this suggestion, so...it'll just continue to be an unsolved mystery!

--
Cynthia Dagnal Myron
Faculty
University of Phoenix
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)
520-241-0126



Thanks for your response, Terry. I will check out the articles and hopefully
a solution will be in there!

I appreciate yout time.

LaurenM