Prefs don't save

[ta]

Word fails to save prefs or create "normal" template.

"A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Normal.dotm)"

There is no disk inserted and no network.

I have tried twice removing all of Office 2008, including prefs and library items, and then reinstalling. Doesn't make any difference.

Using an Intel iMac 2.8 and Leopard

 

[John McGhie]

Re-name your Word 2004 Normal template and try again.

When it creates Normal.dotm, Word 2008 imports the Word 2004/X Normal
template if it can find it. If it can't find it, it will create a clean
default template and everything should work.

I think the problem is that Word is finding something it doesn't like in
your Normal template and failing to write the Normal.dotm. Then when it
tries to save it, there's nothing to save, so it complains that it can't
save it.

I think it is also possible that your file permissions are wrong so the
logged-in user ID does not have read/write/execute/remove access to the
folder where Word is trying to save the .dotm.

Hope this helps

Word fails to save prefs or create "normal" template.

"A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the
disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Normal.dotm)"

There is no disk inserted and no network.

I have tried twice removing all of Office 2008, including prefs and library
items, and then reinstalling. Doesn't make any difference.

Using an Intel iMac 2.8 and Leopard

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ta]

Thanks for your reply. Nothing seems to solve the problem.

I removed everything that's Office or Microsoft -- all the applications, prefs, documents, library items, user items, anything EasyFind or I could find -- all of Office 2004, all of anything microsoft or office

Restarted. Repaired permissions.

Started Word, then quit after it had fully opened. And I got the same error message as before ("A file error has occurred. Check your network connections or make sure the disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Normal.dotm)")

There is no template saved in ~Library/Application Support/Microsoft. There's no Normal or Normal.dotm anywhere.

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm... So it's still crashing without saving Normal.dotm.

Please check in your Microsoft User Data Folder. If that folder is not
there, that's the problem: re-install Office 2008 to re-create it.

If you see a file named "Normal" in there, that's the problem, re-name that.
Don't "delete" it, re-name it. There's a reason I told you to re-name and
not delete

Sorry: You're "doing too much" and thus you are re-creating the problem.
The only things we need are for you to delete the Office 2004 preferences,
and re-name the Office 2004 (and Test Drive, and Office X...) templates if
they exist.

If you do more than that, you potentially get "different" problems that will
produce the same symptom.

I am not convinced that this will solve your problem: but I need to know
what happens when you do this, before I can suggest where to go next.

Cheers

Thanks for your reply. Nothing seems to solve the problem.

I removed everything that's Office or Microsoft -- all the applications,
prefs, documents, library items, user items, anything EasyFind or I could find
-- all of Office 2004, all of anything microsoft or office

Restarted. Repaired permissions.

Started Word, then quit after it had fully opened. And I got the same error
message as before ("A file error has occurred. Check your network connections
or make sure the disk is properly inserted and not defective. (Normal.dotm)")

There is no template saved in ~Library/Application Support/Microsoft. There's
no Normal or Normal.dotm anywhere.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ta]

The folders are there. But they are empty, and stay empty. There's no file to rename.

It's simply not creating the Normal.dotm file.

I can create template files; it does write to them; and I did change permissions on all Users folders to allow Read & Write by Everyone.

If I customize keyboard commands, it claims to be saving them to Normal.dotm. But there is no Normal.dotm file anywhere on the hard drive at any time.

As for Office 2004, I removed everything related to it.

Here's the crash report:

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2008-01-21 20:13:30 -0500
Application Name: Microsoft Word
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Word
Application Signature: MSWD
Application Version: 12.0.0.071130
Crashed Module Name: Microsoft Word
Crashed Module Version: 12.0.0.071130
Crashed Module Offset: 0x004b6dfd
Blame Module Name: Microsoft Word
Blame Module Version: 12.0.0.071130
Blame Module Offset: 0x004b6dfd
Application LCID: 1033
Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409

Thread 0 crashed:

# 1 0x004b7dfd in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x0019BE55 (Microsoft Word + 0x004b6dfd)
# 2 0x004c280d in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A6865 (Microsoft Word + 0x004c180d)
# 3 0x0208b4b9 in _MsoNavGenericEventHandler + 0x000000DD (MicrosoftOffice + 0x002f74b9)
# 4 0x96139de5 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D9965 (AppKit + 0x006c7de5)
# 5 0x96139f62 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D9AE2 (AppKit + 0x006c7f62)
# 6 0x9613c9b6 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958DC536 (AppKit + 0x006ca9b6)
# 7 0x962fc77c in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x960685BC (Foundation + 0x0000977c)
# 8 0x91a26a4a in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x918DCB0A (CoreFoundation + 0x00053a4a)
# 9 0x91a26d23 in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x918DCDE3 (CoreFoundation + 0x00053d23)
# 10 0x962f9a70 in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x960658B0 (Foundation + 0x00006a70)
# 11 0x96303108 in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x9606EF48 (Foundation + 0x00010108)
# 12 0x95b70781 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95310301 (AppKit + 0x000fe781)
# 13 0x96137833 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D73B3 (AppKit + 0x006c5833)
# 14 0x95bb256d in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x953520ED (AppKit + 0x0014056d)
# 15 0x95bb1fd6 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95351B56 (AppKit + 0x0013ffd6)
# 16 0x95ce9571 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x954890F1 (AppKit + 0x00277571)
# 17 0x95ce93dc in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95488F5C (AppKit + 0x002773dc)
# 18 0x95cda55d in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x9547A0DD (AppKit + 0x0026855d)
# 19 0x95fec644 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x9578C1C4 (AppKit + 0x0057a644)
# 20 0x96135821 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D53A1 (AppKit + 0x006c3821)
# 21 0x9613b944 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958DB4C4 (AppKit + 0x006c9944)
# 22 0x0208a068 in _MsoNavChooseFolder + 0x00000194 (MicrosoftOffice + 0x002f6068)
# 23 0x0208a2aa in _MsoNavCreateRunPutFileSS + 0x000000DA (MicrosoftOffice + 0x002f62aa)
# 24 0x004bb735 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x0019F78D (Microsoft Word + 0x004ba735)
# 25 0x004bef8e in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A2FE6 (Microsoft Word + 0x004bdf8e)
# 26 0x004c2329 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A6381 (Microsoft Word + 0x004c1329)
# 27 0x006eaf91 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x003CEFE9 (Microsoft Word + 0x006e9f91)
# 28 0x006ebce7 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x003CFD3F (Microsoft Word + 0x006eace7)
# 29 0x008d487c in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B88D4 (Microsoft Word + 0x008d387c)
# 30 0x008d4e3a in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B8E92 (Microsoft Word + 0x008d3e3a)
# 31 0x008d4f06 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B8F5E (Microsoft Word + 0x008d3f06)
# 32 0x008d60c7 in _wdCommandDispatc

 

[John McGhie]

Your Normal.dotm should be in
/Users/~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

If the MUD is empty, I think you need to re-install Office 2008. There
should be a series of folders in there, including Office 2008 Identities.

That contains the database. I don't think Word can run properly without it.

You don't say "how" you removed Office 2004. That's significant, in that if
you did not run the "Remove Office" tool, you have dead bits of Office 2004
stuck in your system, and these can cause precisely this problem.

If that's what has happened, running the Remove Office tool at this stage
won't repair it, because it can't find it to remove it!

I can only suggest that you:

Delete /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008 folder, And

Delete User/library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008 folder.

Then re-install Office 2004. Start both Entourage and Word at least once.

Then re-install Office 2008, and allow it to Remove Office 2004. That
should ensure you get the dead bits out cleanly.

If that does not work, I am afraid we're staring down the barrel of an
Archive and Install of OS X, followed by a re-install of all the
applications.

No: DON'T try to use a Restore utility to bring them all back from a
different drive or partition: you may re-create the same problem
(incompatible preferences) doing that.

Sorry...

The folders are there. But they are empty, and stay empty. There's no file
to rename.

It's simply not creating the Normal.dotm file.

I can create template files; it does write to them; and I did change
permissions on all Users folders to allow Read & Write by Everyone.

If I customize keyboard commands, it claims to be saving them to Normal.dotm.
But there is no Normal.dotm file anywhere on the hard drive at any time.

As for Office 2004, I removed everything related to it.

Here's the crash report:

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2008-01-21 20:13:30 -0500
Application Name: Microsoft Word
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.Word
Application Signature: MSWD
Application Version: 12.0.0.071130
Crashed Module Name: Microsoft Word
Crashed Module Version: 12.0.0.071130
Crashed Module Offset: 0x004b6dfd
Blame Module Name: Microsoft Word
Blame Module Version: 12.0.0.071130
Blame Module Offset: 0x004b6dfd
Application LCID: 1033
Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409

Thread 0 crashed:

# 1 0x004b7dfd in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x0019BE55 (Microsoft Word +
0x004b6dfd)
# 2 0x004c280d in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A6865 (Microsoft Word +
0x004c180d)
# 3 0x0208b4b9 in _MsoNavGenericEventHandler + 0x000000DD (MicrosoftOffice +
0x002f74b9)
# 4 0x96139de5 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D9965
(AppKit + 0x006c7de5)
# 5 0x96139f62 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D9AE2
(AppKit + 0x006c7f62)
# 6 0x9613c9b6 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958DC536
(AppKit + 0x006ca9b6)
# 7 0x962fc77c in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x960685BC
(Foundation + 0x0000977c)
# 8 0x91a26a4a in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x918DCB0A (CoreFoundation +
0x00053a4a)
# 9 0x91a26d23 in .objc_class_name___NSCFSet + 0x918DCDE3 (CoreFoundation +
0x00053d23)
# 10 0x962f9a70 in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x960658B0
(Foundation + 0x00006a70)
# 11 0x96303108 in .objc_class_name_NSScriptSynonymDescription + 0x9606EF48
(Foundation + 0x00010108)
# 12 0x95b70781 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95310301
(AppKit + 0x000fe781)
# 13 0x96137833 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D73B3
(AppKit + 0x006c5833)
# 14 0x95bb256d in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x953520ED
(AppKit + 0x0014056d)
# 15 0x95bb1fd6 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95351B56
(AppKit + 0x0013ffd6)
# 16 0x95ce9571 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x954890F1
(AppKit + 0x00277571)
# 17 0x95ce93dc in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x95488F5C
(AppKit + 0x002773dc)
# 18 0x95cda55d in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x9547A0DD
(AppKit + 0x0026855d)
# 19 0x95fec644 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x9578C1C4
(AppKit + 0x0057a644)
# 20 0x96135821 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958D53A1
(AppKit + 0x006c3821)
# 21 0x9613b944 in .objc_class_name_HICocoaWindowContentView + 0x958DB4C4
(AppKit + 0x006c9944)
# 22 0x0208a068 in _MsoNavChooseFolder + 0x00000194 (MicrosoftOffice +
0x002f6068)
# 23 0x0208a2aa in _MsoNavCreateRunPutFileSS + 0x000000DA (MicrosoftOffice +
0x002f62aa)
# 24 0x004bb735 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x0019F78D (Microsoft Word +
0x004ba735)
# 25 0x004bef8e in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A2FE6 (Microsoft Word +
0x004bdf8e)
# 26 0x004c2329 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x001A6381 (Microsoft Word +
0x004c1329)
# 27 0x006eaf91 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x003CEFE9 (Microsoft Word +
0x006e9f91)
# 28 0x006ebce7 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x003CFD3F (Microsoft Word +
0x006eace7)
# 29 0x008d487c in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B88D4 (Microsoft Word +
0x008d387c)
# 30 0x008d4e3a in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B8E92 (Microsoft Word +
0x008d3e3a)
# 31 0x008d4f06 in _wdCommandDispatch + 0x005B8F5E (Microsoft Word +
0x008d3f06)
# 32 0x008d60c7 in _wdCommandDispatc

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ta]

Yes MUD has always been empty. That's the problem.

Yes, I have removed both Office 2004 and Office 2008 using their Remove Office Tools. In addition, I manually removed all the Office or Microsoft files that these Tools did not remove. BEFORE DOING ANY OF THIS I READ SEVERAL TIMES YOUR INSTRUCTIONS HERE ABOUT HOW TO REMOVE OFFICE. Yes, I removed the Office 2004 pref files.

I also tried installing Office after booting in an external drive with Panther. This system/disc had never had any Office files on it previously. When I launched Word, there was no MUD folder, and it created one, but without the My Templates folder. When I quit, the same error message appeared, and then the My Templates folder was created, but empty.

I was trying to get Word to create the Normal.dotm file so that I could then copy it.

I have reinstalled Office about six times now. Each time I removed ALL the files using the Tools then manually checking for all the files you list now.

Would it solve the problem if I could obtain a copy of someone else's Normal.dotm file?

 

[chance.aspect]

I was having this same problem too. Not only on my iMac, but on my
MacBook Pro also. I solved the issue by saving a Normal.dotm in the
"My Templates" directory. Then I moved the Normal.dotm up one level
into the User Templates directory. That solved the issue on close. The
only thing is, it does not save any changes to the Normal.dotm unless
you save a new Normal.dotm and them move it up again. Nonetheless,
it's fixed now and my Word is not throwing the error on close.

 

[ta]

Am using an iMac. Today I
a) removed all traces of Microsoft or Office or Word from my internal drive.
b) did a clean install of Leopard on an external drive; did NOT transfer any user files. Booted from this drive.
c) Installed Office 2008 on this drive.
d) Got the same error message quitting: it will not write a Normal.dotm file.

 

[John McGhie]

OK, I am officially out of ideas. That should have worked.

Ooohh... How is your External drive connected? I believe there may be an
issue with a USB connection, but I do not remember the details.

Either way, you can ring Microsoft on this one. Since you have been unable
to get the product to install, support is without charge (make sure you
mention that you have been unable to install, otherwise it's NOT free...)

They certainly want to hear from YOU!

I am sending a drop-copy of this to the Microsoft Software Development
Engineer who is currently hunting these issues.

Cheers

Am using an iMac. Today I
a) removed all traces of Microsoft or Office or Word from my internal drive.
b) did a clean install of Leopard on an external drive; did NOT transfer any
user files. Booted from this drive.
c) Installed Office 2008 on this drive.
d) Got the same error message quitting: it will not write a Normal.dotm file.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Curt Laird]

Hi Ta,
We are currently looking into this one. I¹ll let you know what we find out.

Sorry for the trouble.

Thanks,

Curt

Am using an iMac. Today I
a) removed all traces of Microsoft or Office or Word from my internal drive.
b) did a clean install of Leopard on an external drive; did NOT transfer any
user files. Booted from this drive.
c) Installed Office 2008 on this drive.
d) Got the same error message quitting: it will not write a Normal.dotm file.

--
Curt Laird
Software Development Engineer in Test
Microsoft MacBU - Word
(e-mail address removed) (remove ³ONLINE² for all replies)

This posting is provided ³AS IS² with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[ta]

Well, that's exciting.

It's Firewire 800, on a new Intel iMac 2.8 ghz, running 10.5.1.

 

[chance.aspect]

The fact that the Normal.dotm cant be written should tell you that
it's a permission's issue. Start using the "Get Info" and open those
folders down the Application Support path and start setting the the
Read & Write permissions to everyone. On both my Macs there was an
owner called _unknown which I deleted and set the permissions to
Everyone. That along with creating a Normal.dotm manually and moving
it into the User Templates directory solved the issue.

 

[ta]

Thanks.

I did that, every folder from Users on down.
Didn't help.

 

[ta]

O, I should add, at one point I created a file called Documents.dotm. Customizing keyboard gave me the option of saving changes to it, and I did, and Word wrote the changes. So if there is a permissions problem it does not affect Word writing to that folder.

 

[John McGhie]

That's only ONE place we're looking. It may be that the file IS being
written but we can't see it, or it may be that Word is failing to create the
file so there is no file to write.

There is an issue with the Office 2008 installer: it tends to set the
"Owner" to '502' whether the logged-in user is 502 or not.

http://brunerd.com/blog/2008/01/21/office-2008-502-and-you/

http://www.geeksrus.com/2008/01/22/office-2008-sets-user-id-to-502/

I have no idea whether this is involved or not. Curt Laird, the Microsoft
Development Engineer in Test in charge of Word has a SWAT team on TA's issue
as we speak.

I think we should maybe wait a little before "trying things" to see what
they come back with.

Cheers

The fact that the Normal.dotm cant be written should tell you that
it's a permission's issue. Start using the "Get Info" and open those
folders down the Application Support path and start setting the the
Read & Write permissions to everyone. On both my Macs there was an
owner called _unknown which I deleted and set the permissions to
Everyone. That along with creating a Normal.dotm manually and moving
it into the User Templates directory solved the issue.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[John McGhie]

TA: Just a thought... In Word>Preferences>Save, where is the entry for
your User Templates pointing?

In my copy, I couldn't find the Normal.dotm because it was not going into
Application Support, it's going into my user templates folder. It took me a
couple of days to catch on, because it must have picked that setting up from
Word 2004 when 2008 installed.

As a result, it has picked up, and seems to be writing to, my Word 2007
Normal.dotm that is on the same computer.

That is actually the "correct" behaviour, but Word 2004 ignored that setting
and wrong a file simply named "Normal".

Cheers

O, I should add, at one point I created a file called Documents.dotm.
Customizing keyboard gave me the option of saving changes to it, and I did,
and Word wrote the changes. So if there is a permissions problem it does not
affect Word writing to that folder.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Sydney, Australia. S33°53'34.20 E151°14'54.50
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[ta]

In Prefs/Save it's going to ~Library/Application Support/Mirosoft/Office/User Templates.

All of these have permissions for anybody.

I tried modifying the save location to Desktop, but still got the error message.

Yes, my Word 2004 has always saved the template simply as "Normal."

 

[Bob Smithie]

I am not reproducing your issue and I want to verify your core issue: Word
is not creating the Normal template (Normal.dotm) regardless of the drive
you¹ve booted from, built-in or external hard drive, correct?

What make/model of firewire 800 drive are you using? I see in earlier post
you have a 2.8GHz iMac, but did not see any specifics about the external
drive. I want to have my configuration as close as possible to yours. If
you go to System Preferences, Network, what do you have listed in the
left-hand column and are they connected/not connected?

I¹ve also noted you have cleared out preferences and the like and tried the
process again. In your Preferences folder, are there any preferences for
older versions of Office, such as ŒWord Settings (10)¹?


Thanks,
Shawn Larson
Mac Word Test
Microsoft MacBU

 

[ta]

Yes, problem is the same regardless of whether using internal drive or external drive.

External drive is an internal Seagate Barracuda 750GB partitioned into three drives, in a 3rd-party ("CoolGear") enclosure which System Prefs describes as OXFORD model 0x0.

Network: lists Built-in Ethernet connected; Bluetooth not connected; Built-in FireWire not connected; AirPort on but not connected. There are no other computers on the network except me, and no other users except me.

When I made the test on the external drive, the drive was clean, I did a fresh install of Leopard, created a new user there, did not import any info from user on iMac. So there were no prefs of any sort on the disc except the Mac stuff. Meanwhile, I had cleaned the iMac internal drive of anything related to Microsoft, Office or Word. No, no Word Settings left (I loved Word 5).

I did keep copies of some Office files, but ONLY on one separate Firewire volume which I unmounted before installing or launching Office 2008 (on either the iMac internal drive or on the fresh Firewire volume).