Set Styles to Factory Default

[Anthony]

Hi,
I have a client requirement to use Word's default style
for headings, but all of the Normal.dot templates I can
find have altered heading styles. Is there any way to set
styles back to the factory default?

Thanks

Anthony Jean-Baptiste
Medical Writer, Writing and Publishing
GloboMax® The Strategic Pharmaceutical Development
Division of ICON plc
555 Twin Dolphin Drive, Ste 400
Redwood City, CA 94065
Phone: 650-620-2160
Facsimile: 650-620-2274

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Anthony,

With Word shut down, rename your current Normal.dot (there should be only
one per PC). Restart Word, and it will automatically build a new one with
the defaults you need.

When you've finished that client's work, delete or rename that Normal.dot
and put back the one you had before.

 

[Anthony]

Jay:
I followed your advice, but Word did not build a new
Normal.dot file. Does it matter that I'm on a company
network? I've heard some strange things occur with Word
templates on networks.

Another work around would be to just manually change the
heading styles to the factory default. Do you know where I
can find these specs?

Thanks
Anthony

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Anthony,

Word can't work without a Normal.dot, so there must be one somewhere
that it can reach. The network may extend the number of places it may
be, but it can't possibly make it unnecessary.

If you haven't already, set your Windows Explorer options to show
hidden files and *not* hide file extensions. Then look in the folder
that's listed as the User Templates folder in the Tools > Options >
File Locations dialog. (See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm.)

If you do a full-drive search and find more than one Normal.dot,
rename them all and then restart Word. After that you should find one
whose file date/time is the time you restarted Word.

You really don't want to have to slog through all the built-in styles
-- that's a horrendous job.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My understanding is that recent versions of Word do *not* create a new
Normal.dot until some customization has been saved. If you are intentionally
operating "plain vanilla," it's quite possible that Word is still operating
from the hard-wired defaults and has not created a new Normal.dot. BTW, if
you want to use Word in its default configuration, you can do this without
renaming Normal.dot; just create a shortcut that will start Word with the /a
switch, which suppresses Normal.dot, the Registry, and any add-ins that
would otherwise load at Startup. This guarantees that you are using a
factory-default version.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Experiments suggest that (Word 2003 at least) does create a new normal.dot
if that file is not present, but it is only saved on closing if the prompt
to save normal.dot is switched off, or, when switched on, you agree to the
prompt to save the changes. In this respect it works much like an unsaved
document. I suspect this was ever so, though I no longer have access to
older versions to test.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This makes more sense to me than what I said, but I haven't tested it. It
just didn't seem reasonable to me that Word would operate without a
Normal.dot for as long as the user did nothing to change the default
configuration.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

I've tested this in Word 97, 2000 and 2003 and Word does generate a new
normal.dot upon being started. Word will attempt to save this upon closing
and will generate the prompt about saving "changes" to the global template
if that option is ticked.

This makes more sense to me than what I said, but I haven't tested it. It
just didn't seem reasonable to me that Word would operate without a
Normal.dot for as long as the user did nothing to change the default
configuration.