Word 2000 Normal.dot changes - how do I prevent them?

[jersie0]

For some reason, even though my kids use Word about 10% of the time
that I do, whenever they've been on it I wind up getting a message
about Normal.dot changing and do I want to save the changes, as I exit
out of Word.

That never happened to me, never, never, ever, until my kids started
using Word.

1. Is there a way to prevent this? I mean, since I've been happily
and productively using Word for almost 20 years without ever changing
Normal.dot, I presume that only (mainly) bad things can happen from
changing it. So how do I prevent it from being changed short of
threats of violence against the kids? Or is there a way to at least
make changing it very very very hard?

2. My current normal.dot is time stamped a few minutes ago, when I
quit out of Word. Odd, because I'd said "NO" don't save changes to
it. Should the time stamp be older than that?

3. My current normal.dot is 156k in size. Reasonable or bloated? If
bloated, can I just trash the file and start again?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi,

You may get advice to change your settings so you no longer see this
message. That can be done but this is like advice to take the batteries out
of your three smoke detectors because they keep buzzing and you don't know
why. If your kids are downloading things or getting email, I would suspect a
virus. It is essential that you have a good virus detection/elimination
program on your computer if you are connected to the Internet. (but see the
third paragraph about Norton AV)

The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning. It
means that changes have been made, whether you intended to make changes or
not. You can also get it when your template has been altered by a poorly
written Add-In program or by a malicious virus.

The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a poorly
written Add-In. The Norton AV Office Plug-In seems to be the most frequent
offender recently, but that can change as some other poorly written program
comes on the market.

Other offenders include the MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, Adobe
Acrobat, and Microsoft's MetaData remover. These all install Add-Ins that
mess with your normal.dot when they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so.
Some of these are .dot files, others are installed. See <URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm> for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)

Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.

If not...

If you start Word using
Start => Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seing. When you close it, you won't get the
"normal.dot" prompt.

So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.

If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.

Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.

Hope this helps,

 

[jersie0]

Hi,

You may get advice to change your settings so you no longer see this
message. That can be done but this is like advice to take the batteries out
of your three smoke detectors because they keep buzzing and you don't know
why. If your kids are downloading things or getting email, I would suspect a
virus. It is essential that you have a good virus detection/elimination
program on your computer if you are connected to the Internet. (but see the
third paragraph about Norton AV)

The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning. It
means that changes have been made, whether you intended to make changes or
not. You can also get it when your template has been altered by a poorly
written Add-In program or by a malicious virus.

The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a poorly
written Add-In. The Norton AV Office Plug-In seems to be the most frequent
offender recently, but that can change as some other poorly written program
comes on the market.

Other offenders include the MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, Adobe
Acrobat, and Microsoft's MetaData remover. These all install Add-Ins that
mess with your normal.dot when they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so.
Some of these are .dot files, others are installed. See <URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm> for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)

Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.

If not...

If you start Word using
Start => Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seing. When you close it, you won't get the
"normal.dot" prompt.

So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.

If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.

Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.

Hope this helps,

I'm not so much of an in-depth user that I knowingly work with
add-ins. My computer is automatically NAV'd twice a week, right after
the automatic virus definition updates, and was NAV'd this morning.
All my email attachments incoming also are scanned by Norton or McAfee
(I receive a lot through yahoo mail).

For now, I've renamed the old normal.dot to reflect what happened and
restarted word. No setting that I am aware of was affected by this.
The normal.dot file that was created was 26k in size. I did notice
though that when I restarted Word and exited, the timestamp had been
updated.

 

[pcbutts1]

Follow these steps to lock your global template (Normal.dot) with a password
to reduce the possibility of unauthorized access by a macro virus:
On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
In the Visual Basic Editor, click to select This Document in the Project
window.

If the Project window does not appear, click Project Explorer on the View
menu.
On the Tools menu, click Project Properties.
On the Protection tab, click to select the Lock project for viewing check
box.
Type a password in the Password box.
Type the same password in the Confirm password box.
Click OK.
On the File menu, click Close and return to Microsoft Word.
In Microsoft Word, hold SHIFT and click Save All on the File menu.
If the following message appears, click Yes.
Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot. Do you
want to save those changes?



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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Disable the Office Plug-in in Norton AntiVirus.

 

[jersie0]

Follow these steps to lock your global template (Normal.dot) with a password
to reduce the possibility of unauthorized access by a macro virus:
On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
In the Visual Basic Editor, click to select This Document in the Project
window.

If the Project window does not appear, click Project Explorer on the View
menu.
On the Tools menu, click Project Properties.
On the Protection tab, click to select the Lock project for viewing check
box.
Type a password in the Password box.
Type the same password in the Confirm password box.
Click OK.
On the File menu, click Close and return to Microsoft Word.
In Microsoft Word, hold SHIFT and click Save All on the File menu.
If the following message appears, click Yes.
Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot. Do you
want to save those changes?

Okay, I've done that. However, I didn't get the "changes have been
made..." message. I'll assume that normal.dot is locked, but how can
I be sure?