Hi Jacqui:
Well, it's partly because Word is designed to prevent what you are doing :-)
If you use a global add-in and leave the user's Normal.dot alone, you will
have a lot easier time of it.
I don't think you're ever going to get a reliable result by distributing a
"master" Normal.dot, and I would venture to say that you never have had :-)
I guess most users won't tell you about the various ways they re-substitute
their "own" Normal after you've done your distribution :-)
However, if you make the changes to your OWN Normal template, making sure
that you open the template as a document before you start, and that you do
not have any other templates or documents open when you do, you have a
better chance of success.
Make sure you do not run Outlook in the session when you are changing
Normal: log off, log back on without allowing Outlook to start. That kills
the hidden instance of Word that will otherwise hold a second copy of Normal
open in memory, leading to a bit of a lottery as to which version gets
saved.
When you have finished, quite Word and copy your Normal template, then Zip
it before allowing Word or Outlook to start.
Cheers
On 13/9/06 7:40 PM, in article
, "Jacqui"
wrote:
Hi Suzanne. In our firm. We maintain a master normal.dot which
contains all macros, autotext etc and this is copied to the c drive of
each user. We control the autotext, macros, toolbars etc so they can't
create their own. This is the culture in the firm when I joined and
which I have to work with. I've looked at the articles and they're
very helpful - if we do change our practice I'll make sure I refer to
them. In the meantime - why is making such changes to a template so
difficult?
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John McGhie
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410