Normal.dot susceptible to corruption?

[bufossil]

I am using Word 2003 SP2 on Windows XP SP2.

In the past 5 weeks I have had three different Word documents in which the
template has become corrupted beyond repair. Just today, the styles suddenly
changed in all 7 tables in the document, and the style in the tables cannot
be converted to any other style. Now, if I create a new table and enter data
into it, the data appears in Word-determined style that also cannot be
changed.

If Word replaces the Normal.dot after it is deleted, and the new Normal.dot
file Word creates is similarly susceptible to corruption, how do I obtain a
pristine Normal.dot file that does not suffer the same disease as its
predecessors?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I am weary of re-creating documents from
scratch.

Tim Munyon

 

[Klaus Linke]

If Word replaces the Normal.dot after it is deleted, and the new

Normal.dot file Word creates is similarly susceptible to corruption,
how do I obtain a pristine Normal.dot file that does not suffer the
same disease as its predecessors?

Hi Tim,

The new Normal.dot is pristine, and it may well solve your problems.

I've run into the same issues, and re-built my Normal.dot.
Though it's impossible to be sure that this was the fix, I didn't have any
more problems of the sort with table styles after that.

It's better to rename Normal.dot than to permanently delete it.

If you have made customizations, you might want to move them to your new one
with the Organizer (Tools > Templates and Add-Ins) later.
Or make a backup of your formatted AutoCorrects, ...

Though in your case, I would obviously be wary of copying the styles over:
That is likely were the corruption happened.

Good luck,
Klaus