Problem: same document opens every time

[toad]

I was using Word one day when my puter froze. when I rebooted and opened,
it recovered. That seems normal enough. But now every time I open Word
(2000), it still opens that same document.

I have put in the CD and chosen the repair option. I even uninstalled Word
and reinstalled. (I have office 2000).

anyways, not sure what to do now, but this same document always opens. Even
if I have Word open and choose File>New, that document will show up. If I
delete and save as a blank document, it'll still comeback. If I delete,
close, don't save, it still comes back. Obviously something is corrupted,
but I thought un/reinstall would fix it.

Do I need to dig deeper in the registry when I uninstall to delete
additional files or what?

or is there an option in the settings that will prevent Word from keeping a
memory of this document that keeps opening? Strangely enough, it's not a
document that's saved that keeps opening, it's one that I was about to print
when I froze up.

thanks if you can help.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I would guess that you have inadvertently saved that document as the Normal
template.

Try this.

1. Exit from Word.
2. Rename the Normal template to, say, abNormal.dot.
3. Restart Word.

If the problem is cured, then exit from Word, do not Save changes to
Normal.dot.
Then OPEN abNormal.dot.do not double click, just open.
Clean out the content of the document.
Save abNormal.dot as Normal.dot, and you should now be OK.

If the above does not fix the problem, then you have an Auto* macro that is
causing Word to open with the unwanted document.

 

[toad]

Okay, I'm not a Word scholar, but this is what I did.

I went into Windows 'explore', saw the normal.tem folder
there were 3 files, 2 had the windows ensignia on them and both were named
Normal. The third is a notebook looking icon with a yellow mechanical icon
on it. I clicked thru the other tem folders to realize each other other
folders only had 1 of each of those.

So I clicked on the 2 normal files with the windows ensignia on them. I
noticed one had a sort of outline in the little display window in explore?
I deleted that one.

Then I opened word. the pasted material still comes up.

So I did what you said and renamed it as you said, then reopened word.
Still came up.

so I renamed it back to Normal and renamed the one with the mechanical
looking icon on it. pasted material still came up. I was shutting and
opening word in between renaming as you said.

If I open up the icon with the mechanical ensignia on it, it says..

[info]
title=Normal Style Sheet
description=Create a blank cascading style sheet.

Anyways, after all that I went into the macros and chose normal from the
pull down menu and there aren't any macros created. so what is an auto
macro or how would I shut that option off?

I feel like that's what's going on here... something is saved that shouldn't
be... something is corrupted.

It's not a pain in the ass per se, it's just an annoyance. I have to delete
the pasted material before I start typing in word. Other than that, it all
works pretty normal.

So I don't know what to do now. I would think by uninstalling the software,
it'd cure the problem, but I've deleted word and reinstalled twice to no
avail.

thanks for your help.

 

[BS]

In

Okay, I'm not a Word scholar, but this is what I did.

I went into Windows 'explore', saw the normal.tem folder
there were 3 files, 2 had the windows ensignia on them and both were
named Normal. The third is a notebook looking icon with a yellow
mechanical icon on it. I clicked thru the other tem folders to
realize each other other folders only had 1 of each of those.

So I clicked on the 2 normal files with the windows ensignia on them.
I noticed one had a sort of outline in the little display window in
explore? I deleted that one.

Then I opened word. the pasted material still comes up.

So I did what you said and renamed it as you said, then reopened word.
Still came up.

so I renamed it back to Normal and renamed the one with the mechanical
looking icon on it. pasted material still came up. I was shutting
and opening word in between renaming as you said.

If I open up the icon with the mechanical ensignia on it, it says..

[info]
title=Normal Style Sheet
description=Create a blank cascading style sheet.

Anyways, after all that I went into the macros and chose normal from
the pull down menu and there aren't any macros created. so what is
an auto macro or how would I shut that option off?

I feel like that's what's going on here... something is saved that
shouldn't be... something is corrupted.

It's not a pain in the ass per se, it's just an annoyance. I have to
delete the pasted material before I start typing in word. Other than
that, it all works pretty normal.

So I don't know what to do now. I would think by uninstalling the
software, it'd cure the problem, but I've deleted word and
reinstalled twice to no avail.

thanks for your help.

I would guess that you have inadvertently saved that document as the
Normal template.

Try this.

1. Exit from Word.
2. Rename the Normal template to, say, abNormal.dot.
3. Restart Word.

If the problem is cured, then exit from Word, do not Save changes to
Normal.dot.
Then OPEN abNormal.dot.do not double click, just open.
Clean out the content of the document.
Save abNormal.dot as Normal.dot, and you should now be OK.

If the above does not fix the problem, then you have an Auto* macro
that is causing Word to open with the unwanted document.

Toad,

You need to find the file normal.dot which should be in your templates
folder. You can rename it or delete it as Word will create a new Normal
Template the next time it is run. Sometimes this file can become corrupted
if Word crashes and burns. The normal.tem folder that you spoke of, I
believe, is for making a normal html document.


Cheers,
BS

 

[toad]

Toad,

You need to find the file normal.dot which should be in your templates
folder. You can rename it or delete it as Word will create a new Normal
Template the next time it is run. Sometimes this file can become corrupted
if Word crashes and burns. The normal.tem folder that you spoke of, I
believe, is for making a normal html document.


Cheers,
BS

thanks, but do I delete the one with the windows ensignia or the one with
that little yellow mechanical symbol on it?

the MS Dos name for the one with the mechanical looking icon is normal.inf.
the other is normal.css. Both are named normal.tem in the location
pathname.

thanks.

 

[Norm Dresner]

thanks, but do I delete the one with the windows ensignia or the one with
that little yellow mechanical symbol on it?

the MS Dos name for the one with the mechanical looking icon is normal.inf.
the other is normal.css. Both are named normal.tem in the location
pathname.

thanks.

DON'T DELETE ANY FILES.

RENAME THEM.

That way you can always get back to where you started. The simplest scheme
I can recommend is to prepend (add to the beginning of) the name of the
original file something like
"WAS_"
so you'll not only always have it but know where it came from.

Norm

 

[BS]

In

DON'T DELETE ANY FILES.

RENAME THEM.

That way you can always get back to where you started. The simplest
scheme I can recommend is to prepend (add to the beginning of) the
name of the original file something like
"WAS_"
so you'll not only always have it but know where it came from.

Norm

Hi Toad,

You should delete the normal.dot file only, however, as Norm suggests,
it never hurts to rename a file just in case. Do not touch any of the files
in the normal.tem folders because as I mentioned earlier, they are html
templates and really don't have anything to do with the normal.dot file. If
you delete those files they will not be reformed the next time Word starts
and you may lose the ability to 'save a document as html'. Just do a search
for normal.dot and either rename or delete that file and Word will make a
new one.


Good Luck,
BS

 

[toad]

Just do a search
for normal.dot and either rename or delete that file and Word will make a
new one.


Good Luck,
BS

oh, that was easy. Did a search, it found a word document named normal.
bizarre, I wasn't looking for a document as the curse, but after deleting it
and opening word, it came up with a blank document.

Thanks cool.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Do not delete anything.

First, make sure your OS is displaying file extensions so you see, e.g.,
"normal.dot "instead of "normal".
In windoze explorer, right click on normal.dot and select Open.
Clean out the stuff you don't want in the document, then Save the document
and exit Word.

You should no longer see the undesired document when you create a new
document.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Keep out of the normal.tem folder.

normal.dot is in the templates directory for each user, e.g.:

J:\Documents and Settings\Howard Kaikow\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates

Never delete Normal.dot. Rename so you can recover if you goof.
See http://www.standards.com/OhMyWord/RebuildingTemplates.htm (note that the
web server is down now, so check later(.