Normal.dot Wasn't Being Saved

[Earl Grey]

Hello (again):

I'm writing about Word 2002 running on Windows XP SP 2.

For a while I had this problem: Any changes I made to normal.dot were
only saved until I restarted my computer. Once I restarted my computer,
normal.dot reverted to default settings.

I actually posted about this once before and received a helpful reply
explaining that if I was running Acrobat Reader 7 - which I was at the
time I posted - then Acrobat Reader could be the problem. (A link
explained why.)

To test this possibility, I uninstalled Acrobat Reader 7 (never liked it
anyway) and restarted my computer. Then I customized normal.dot (through
Word's Tools | Options, natch). My settings held until I restarted my
computer and then...back to defaults! So, it seems Acrobat Reader was
not causing this problem.

I thought my security software - Kaspersky Internet Security 6 - might
be interfering. However, a review of the program's logs showed no action
had been taken against Word.

Finally, I tried this experiment: I opened normal.dot in Word, made my
changes in Tools | Options, and saved the file as normal.dot. In other
words, I forced normal.dot to change. TA DA - this worked.

I don't mind making changes this way - heck, I hardly ever change
normal.dot - but if someone could suggest why I can't change Word's
global template I would love to fix this. As a possible additional clue:
When changes to normal.dot weren't saving, Word would also open in full
screen.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Earl Grey

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you understood that Adobe Reader 7 was the problem, you misunderstood.
The problem is Adobe Acrobat 7, which is an entirely different program.
There is no problem with Adobe Reader. But whatever is causing your problem
is having the same effect: it is marking Normal.dot as being saved so that
you are not prompted to save it when you quit Word. You don't actually have
to open Normal.dot for editing, however; you can, as explained in
http://www.gmayor.com/lose_that_adobe_acrobat_toolbar.htm, force a save by
pressing Shift while clicking File, then clicking Save All. This forces a
save of all open documents and templates, including Normal.dot (you can
cancel a Save As for any open unsaved documents).

At a guess, there is some Word add-in that is causing the problem, so your
task is to find what add-ins are present and eliminate them one by one as
the culprit. For help in determining what add-ins are installed, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm.

 

[Terry Farrell]

To add to Suzanne's reply, we were recently informed by another user that a
disk cleaner utility (I think it was called CC cleaner) was causing this
problem too.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks for the reminder, Terry. I keep forgetting about CC Cleaner.

 

[Earl Grey]

Hello again:

Thanks for your help.

Apologies to Suzanne for misunderstanding your original reply. Yes, I
have Acrobat Reader, not Acrobat itself.

In any case, it's good to know that Shift+File+Save All is an option.

Unfortunately, saving normal.dot over itself has proved fruitless. The
problem is back. And since I have no add-ins installed in Word, the
finger is pointing at CCleaner.

I have been using CCleaner for a while but have not experienced a
problem with normal.dot until recently. It might be that an update to
the program that is causing my problem.

The thing is, CCleaner is set to run at every restart, and the global
template did not reset itself for the first few restarts. My settings in
normal.dot seem to survive several restarts and opening/closings of
Word, but eventually the defaults return.

Something is getting in the way. I'll have to do some experimenting to
identify a culprit.

Earl Grey

 

[Graham Mayor]

Apparently CC Cleaner screws up Word's registry settings so don't use it!

You may have to delete the settings sub key of the data key in the registry
in order for Word to rebuild it (see
http://www.gmayor.com/my_toolbars_are_missing.htm ) which shows how to find
it. With that fixed, you can re-input your preferred settings. I would
recommend renaming normal.dot to oldnormal.dot (which will allow Word to
rebuild that) and repairing Word also. You can then copy your macros etc
from the oldnormal.dot to the new one using the organizer - see also
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Earl Grey]

Hi Graham:

So far it appears that CCleaner is the culprit. I'm still using it,
however I have prevented it from affecting Office programs (a simple
matter of removing a check mark.)

CCleaner is just a handy way to clear caches, TIF, etc. (It also
includes a so-called registry cleaner which I do not use.) It has been
problem-free until recently, which leads me to suspect that a recent
update to the program is causing the trouble.

If my theory ultimately proves wrong I'll have your instructions handy.
Thanks for your help.

Earl Grey

 

[Earl Grey]

Folks:

I asked about this issue on the CCleaner support forum. Several users
have reported the same problem, so the developers are doing some
investigating. I'm confident there will be a fix soon.

Earl Grey

 

[Terry Farrell]

Thanks for the information and confirmation.

Terry

 

[Earl Grey]

Greetings all:

I have more information to report.

The problem of changing Word's settings is, apparently, shared by other
disk clean-up programs. There's actually quite a discussion of it in the
CCleaner help forum, but I'll quote the gist of it here. This particular
note is in regard to Office 2003:

"The problem isn't the developer, or the product CCleaner. Any other
cleaning app that also offers to clean Office 2003 will probably result
in the same problem because Microsoft placed some of the MRU lists
within the actual settings such is the case in Word 2003. Hence the
reason to only clean the list inside of Word 2003, and not use any other
program to do it. To my knowledge that's the only way to clean Word 2003
without losing all settings."

"A tip before using any cleaning program on MS Office 2003 is to go
into: Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools >
Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard. With Microsoft Office
2003 Save My Settings Wizard you can also restore your settings, and it
works like a charm between WinXP re-installs too."

The full discussion is here:
http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=8116

So it isn't anyone's 'fault' really. It's just the way it is.

Earl Grey

 

[Terry Farrell]

Understood. Thanks. I don't have CCleaner so is it possible to make CCleaner
skip Office 2003 during a clean up?

Terry

 

[Earl Grey]

Hi Terry:

In the program's Cleaner | Applications menu, the user places a check
mark next to applications they want CCleaner to clean (of selected
cached values).

Simply removing the check mark from 'Office XP' or 'Office 2003' or
whatever version of Office is listed in the Applications tab means that
CCleaner will skip the program during a cleaning.

Earl Grey

 

[Terry Farrell]

Cheers for that.

Terry

Hi Terry:

In the program's Cleaner | Applications menu, the user places a check mark
next to applications they want CCleaner to clean (of selected cached
values).

Simply removing the check mark from 'Office XP' or 'Office 2003' or
whatever version of Office is listed in the Applications tab means that
CCleaner will skip the program during a cleaning.

Earl Grey