Signs of a Corrupt Normal.dot

[Thomas M.]

Word 2003

I worked a trouble ticket today where the user was able to demonstrate that
some of her AutoText sub-menus (Insert > AutoText > Header/Footer, for
example) had disappeared. Deleting Normal.dot and letting Word rebuild it
on startup corrected the problem, so I am pretty sure that her Normal.dot
template was corrupt.

I seem to remember seeing an article a year or two back on the most common
signs of a corrupt Normal.dot file. However, I am not able to find that
article now. Does anyone know where I can find such an article?

--Tom

 

[Brian]

I would check this link first.

See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/LostSymbol.htm

Hope this helps,

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I doubt that this would be relevant to this issue at hand.

 

[Thomas M.]

I could see that being the case for a single menu item, but not for a bunch
of menu items.

In re-reading my original post I see that it is not as clear as it could
have been. What happened is that the user was able to see the Insert >
AutoText > Header/Footer menu, but the 10 or so items under the
Header/Footer menu were all gone. Renaming Normal.dot and letting Word
recreate it solved the problem, so I am certain that the problem was caused
by a corrupt Normal.dot file. I sent the user a few links about templates
and template corruption in general, but I was also hoping to provide the him
with some information regarding common signs of Normal.dot corruption. I
know that when Normal.dot becomes corrupt the results can be unpredictable,
but I thought that certain problems might be somewhat more common, and
therefore would serve as a reasonable indicator of Normal.dot corruption.

I guess the best indicator of all is when you force Word to rebuild
Normal.dot and the problem goes away! ;-)

--Tom