Problems with Normal.dot in Word 2003

[Just George]

Hi Everyone,
Is anyone experiencing problems with the normal.dot file in Word 2003 (ver
11.8125.8122) SP2?

Most of my experience using normal.dot was with Word 2000 so I'm wondering
if things have changed in 2003. Word 2000 used to create the normal.dot
automatically on open if it didn't already exist. But not in 2003.

Here are the problems that my users are reporting...
1. Word is not automatically creating the normal.dot file on open.
2. Making changes to page setup and then clicking the Default button is not
making the changes to normal.dot.
3. If we manually create a normal.dot file, and save changes specifically to
this file, then all appears to be O.K. But if we add menu items or buttons
these do not get saved in normal.dot on a consistent basis. Some times it
saves and at others everything appears to get reset to back to default
conditions (e.g. as if normal.dot is being cleared).

The most frustrating thing is that I am following the instructions posted on
the MVP site and something just does not feel right about how normal.dot is
working. It feels like something changed within the past 2 months that is
affecting normal.dot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
George

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The most common cause of all the problems you describe is a poorly written
add-in that is preventing Normal.dot from being saved. In most cases this
turns out to be the add-in for Acrobat 7. If you have Acrobat 7 installed,
see the last portion of
http://www.gmayor.com/lose_that_adobe_acrobat_toolbar.htm

 

[Just George]

Hi Suzanne,

You are brilliant!!! This seems to have fixed the problem.

Now the difficult part... upgrading all of my Acrobat 7.0.0 Professional
users to 7.0.9. It would be nice if I could find a simple upgrade but it
appears to be a 4 step upgrade. But that's another problem.

Adobe doesn't make my job any easier.

Thanks a bunch.

George

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No, Graham is brilliant in this case. Glad I could help.