Usually this is the work of a poorly designed add-in. The Office Plug-in in
Norton AntiVirus and the Microsoft Works Suite Add-in for Word are notorious
for this kind of nonsense. Make sure you have "Prompt to save Normal
template" checked on the Save tab of Tools | Options so you'll at least get
some warning when an add-in is trying to modify Normal.dot.

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

"Old Retired Telephone Man"
m wrote in message
...
Thank you. I have done this procedure before. I have now done the
procedure
again and I now have insert auto text back. I suppose the next logical
question is "since I do not save to normal.dot and when I create a new
Word
document I begin with the blank document that Word presents when I open
Word
how or what changes the Normal.dot"? I know that you may not be able to
answer that question. I see by the referenced document that I am not the
only person with this problem.

Best regards.


"garfield-n-odie" wrote:

Close Word. Rename your Normal.dot template as described in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm . Word
will create a new Normal.dot template when you restart it. If
desired, you can start Word and click on Tools | Templates and
Addins | Organizer, and copy your customizations from your
renamed Normal.dot to the new Normal.dot.

Old Retired Telephone Man wrote:

I have been able to use insert auto text in header/footer. Now even
when I
display header/footer and click on tool bar, options, highlight insert
autotext as soon as I close the minue the insert autotext is grayed
out again.