Tearing myself away from normal.dot

[Phil]

I've added a whole bunch of things to my normal.dot file over the
years: macros, styles, autotexts, etc. But I've heard that it's not
safe to put everything into normal.dot, in case of corruption.

So, is the solution as simple as just copying and renaming normal.dot
to, say, Mytemplate.dot?

If so, how can I then make Mytemplate.dot become the standard global
template from which all new blank documents inherit their styles?

(In other words, Normal.dot and the new Mytemplate.dot will now
possess identical style names, but I will want Mytemplate.dot's style
definitions to prevail).

Thank you!
-Phil

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You shouldn't do the first thing you suggest and you can't do the second.
Styles belong in document templates, one for each type of document you
create; these templates can also store the macros, toolbars, and AutoText
entries that are useful for creating those documents, along with the
document layout (margins, page size and orientation, header/footer, any
boilerplate text, etc). You can also store macros, toolbars, and AutoText
entries in a global template loaded as an add-in. Just create MyTemplate.dot
and put it in Word's Startup folder. It will be loaded when you start Word,
and all its macros, toolbars, and AutoText (but not styles or document
layout) will be available in all documents you create.

For more, see
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm and
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Normal.dot is more robust than you give it credit for. Keep a backup or two.
I haved not lost a normal.dot since Office 95 - and mine has umpteen
personalisations and a lot of macros and currently stands at 1.6mb

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Agreed. I have never had to rename Normal.dot (knock on wood).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.