Network Normal.dot Issues

[MarieC]

I am responsible for IT (and word processing) in a small
office of about 20 users. I am the only IT Operator in
the office and new to professional IT. My issue is this:

All 20 computer users in this office are accessing the
same normal.dot file on a network drive.

The Windows platforms and Office versions on the
computers are various, from Windows98 to WindowsXP, and
from Office97 to Office2003.

I have read a Microsoft article that says normal.dot
should not be used by multiple users. The network
administrators disagree with this.

I am asking about this issue in an attempt to understand
some odd, glitchy issues we have been having with Word
from time to time.

Any advice or comments on the advisability of network use
of normal.dot would be appreciated.

Cheers
MarieC

 

[Margaret Aldis]

You definitely should not be sharing Normal.dot between any users, and to
share it between different Office versions is complete madness!

Normal.dot does a number of different things. A couple that might be
significant here:

Normal.dot acts as a repository for various user settings and
customizations. A distinct copy of Normal needs to be available to each
user's Word application so these changes can be recorded during work, and
saved on exit. (Note that this also means that you should not make
Normal.dot read-only, nor access it across a network which might lose
connection.)

Normal.dot acts as the model for default blank documents - each new document
is effectively a copy of the 'document' part of the template (styles, page
layout, various properties and options). Although Word documents can to some
extent be shared between versions from 97 onwards, there are new and changed
features in each version, and various compatibility issues. If you have a
Normal.dot that relates to an older version, you may be missing some
features in new blank documents (I would guess, for instance, that built-in
Table styles might not appear). If you have one that relates to a newer
version, you may get a blank document that has already had to ignore or
convert some file parameters in order to be editable.

There are obviously some real issues of compatibility, control and
consistency that need to addressed in your situation. You might need to
provide 'starter' Normal.dots for each version for instance, or use macros
to ensure certain options are set. But you need to leave each user's 'User
Templates Folder' (which will be the location of Normal.dot) on their own
machine. If you want to share document templates, you can set a 'Workgroup
Templates Folder' location to a network location, or push out templates from
a central location with a log-in script, for instance.

Hope this is some help to your cause .

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To add to what Margaret has said, you might point your network
administrators to the KB article “You cannot share the Normal.dot file among
multiple users in Word” at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811468.
Perhaps this is the article you have already seen. If they won't take advice
from you or us, they might heed the "official word" from Microsoft.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Normal.dot should _not_ be shared. What can be shared or distributed is one
or more other global templates which can customize AutoText, macros,
toolbars, and the interface in general. See
http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for step-by-step instructions
on moving / sharing / copying / backing-up customizations including
AutoText, AutoCorrect, keyboard assignments, toolbars, macros, etc.

Also, you should have a set of workgroup templates which can set formats and
styles. For more on the different kinds of templates, tabs on the file new
dialog, and locations of templates folders see
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm.

These two approaches, combined, can do far more toward standardizing a work
environment and maximizing your users' efficacy with Word than sharing
normal.dot ever could, without the problems that come from attempting to
share normal.dot. These are more work and require a greater knowledge of how
to use Word, but are much more productive.

 

[MarieC]

To Margaret, Suzanne and Charles

Thank you very much for your responses to my query. I
will now try to remedy this situation.

Cheers
MarieC