Open Word, go to Word Options | Advanced tab and scroll down to the SAVE
section and make sure that 'Prompt before saving Normal Template' is
checked. Close the options dialog.
Use the Font Dialog (Ctrl+D), select Arial 11pt and press the DEFAULT...
button at the bottom of the dialog. Close the document and then close
Word.
Do you get the prompt to save Normal template when Word closes? Is there a
normal.dotm now?
Terry
Terry,
Changed normal.dotm to normal.old.
Option set to save file as dotm which is word 2007 format.
Opened new document and changed font from calibri to Ariel 11.
Saved document.
Closed word.
Opened Explorer and checked
c:\users\...\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\ there is no file in
there called normal.dotm
What next?
oldgray
On Fri, 5 Jun 2009 09:34:52 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
None of this is making any sense whatsoever. Please let's go back to
square
1.
Rename normal.dotm as normal.bad. Restart Word and make sure it is in
Word
2007 mode and not compatibility mode. Now before doing anything else,
type
into the blank document and check what font and font size it is using?
(Don't be concerned that there is no normal.dotm created as there
shouldn't
be a normal.dotm at this stage.)
Terry
Terry,
I guess I still have a problem since before copying my friend's copy
of normal.dotm into the templates folder Word did not create a
normal.dotm. Once I copied the file into the folder the date and time
were modified but the creator was still my friend.
Would it help if I uninstalled word and then reinstalled it?
At times word is still crashing with the original error message that I
had added to this post a few days ago.
The saga continues.
Thanks,
oldgray
On Thu, 4 Jun 2009 15:54:49 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
The test to see if this is working is to make a simple change such as
to
the
default font (as described in my previous post) and then close Word
and
check the date/time stamp of the normal.dotm file. If it doesn't
change
to
the current date/time you still have a problem. Bringing in a copy of
normal.dotm is not fixing the problem. The problem is that Word is not
creating a normal.dotm.
Terry
Terry,
Good morning.
I had a friend send me the missing normal.dotm file and placed it in
the fold that you indicated it should have been. Followed your
steps
and the file has now been accessed and the date changed.
I also set the option for both word and excel to periodically check
for updates it the options. Next week I will see if when I run the
diagnostics any files were change since there is one error message
about some sketch file missing and me not having administrative
privileges to make updates.
The office 2007 install was clean not an upgrade
With the dotm file now in the folder I will have to see if the crash
message no longer appears.
Thanks for the help.
oldgray
On Wed, 3 Jun 2009 08:34:51 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
In Windows Explorer, make sure that under Folder Options | View tab,
Show
Hidden Files and Folders is checked and that 'Hide extensions for
known
file
types' and 'Hide protected operating systems files' are both
unchecked.
That
will ensure normal.dotm will show up.
Then open Word and go to the Font settings dialog and change the
font
or
font size and press the DEFAULT button at the bottom of the dialog.
Now
close Word. Note that when you close Word you should get a prompt to
save
changes to the global template: answer Yes. Use Explorer to navigate
to
Users | Username | App Data | Roaming | Microsoft | Templates and
look
for
normal.dotm now. If it is not in that location, open Word again and
go
to
Word Options | Advance tab and down at the very bottom select File
Locations. Confirm that the User Templates folder is pointing to the
location above.
If that fails to generate the normal.dotm, it may be add-in that is
incompatible with Word 2007. Is Office 2007 an upgrade from an older
version
or a clean install on a new computer?
Terry
PS Users without Word 2007 may download the FREE Office 2007
compatibility
pack for Office 2000 to 2003, which will let them open Office 2007
formats
files: it will also give them all the new font sets to ensure 100%
compatibility.
Terry,
I am running Office2007. I have just zipped the normal.doc and
normal.bak and then deleted both files. On my computer there is
no
file named normal.dotm. I have changed the options to use word
2007
file format. The font I have set is Ariel 12pt. The real puzzle
is
the normal.dotm file that is not on my computer.
Just ran the Diagnostics option from word and nothing came up bad.
However, when I went to option screen the following came up but
can
not get to the file it wants me to go get. It will take a few
days
till the download is accomplished per the Microsoft site.
Update Diagnostic - Unable to access a required file
The Update Diagnostic was unable to run because it requires a file
that you have chosen not to download. To give Microsoft Office
permission to download this file, do one of the following in one
of
these 2007 Office release programs:
I was using the 2003 comparability format so I could sent files to
people still using office2003.
My next thing I guess is to wait till the problem file is
downloaded.
However, the file normal.dotm mystery remains.
Again thanks for the help.
oldgray
On Tue, 2 Jun 2009 22:19:57 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
Are you sure you are using Word 2007? Why did you change the font
substitution? normal.dotm is the equivalent of the previous
normal.dot.
It
has NEVER been normal.doc. If you are definitely using Word 2007,
go
to
Word
Options | Resources tab and choose the DIAGNOSTICS option.
I asked before, why are you using compatibility mode?
Terry
Hi once more,
I am looking at the folder:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
Inside of that folder are two other folder Charts and Document
Themes.
Under Document Themes there are three other folders :
Themes Colors, Theme Effects and Theme Fonts. all of these
folders
are
empty. Under the Templates folder as files are :~$Normal.old,
Manufacturing output histogram.xlt,Normal.bak and Normal.doc.
that
is
all.
I went into the Word preferences and changed the font in Font
Substitution to Ariel 12.
After your last note I changed Normal.doc to Normal.ba1 but when
word
was opened it recreated the Normal.doc file. I just changed it
once
more and we will see what happens. Is Normal.dotm due to
Word2007
file format?
We hopefully will get this solved.
oldman
On Tue, 2 Jun 2009 15:22:37 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
There is no such animal as normal.doc (for Word 2007), not even
in
previous
versions of Word: normal.bak is irrelevant. I suggest you rename
one
as
normal.bad and the other as normal.ba1.
Then restart Word 2007 and try changing the fonts again. If it
still
fails,
what fonts are you using and why are you using Word 2003
compatibility
mode?
Terry
I followed your instructions and went to the location
indicated.
However, I only see normal.doc and normal.bak. Could my word
problem
be that I am running in word2003 mode so that I can transfer
files
to
users that are running office2003?
Thanks for the help,
oldman
On Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:19:55 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
And if you still cannot see it, go to the Windows Explorer
options
and
disable the 'Hide File Extensions...' setting and select 'Show
System
and
Hidden files' option.
Terry
message
It will be located in the following folder:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
--
Hope this helps.
Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail
yourself
of
my
services on a paid consulting basis.
Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via
msnews.microsoft.com
Tom,
I did a search for the file normal.dotm and Vista did not
find
a
file
by that name so could you tell me in which folder it should
be
located
unless the name is not what you wrote.
I want to take the fixes one at a time starting with your
first
fix.
Thanks
oldgray
On Mon, 1 Jun 2009 16:27:22 +0100, "Terry Farrell"
I've not seen this particular error but errors of these
types
are
usually
due to one of these problems:
1. Corrupt normal.dotm (rename it as normal.bad and Word
will
recreate
it
automatically)
2. Corrupt Data Key at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data.
Run
Regedit,
navigate to the key and whilst DATA is selected, press
DELETE.
3. Corrupt printer driver. Check that you have the
latest
printer
driver
from the manufacturer's support site and then delete and
reinstall
the
printer.
Assuming one of these fixes the problem, clean up after all
those
failures:
see
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm
for
what
to
do.
