Normal.dot is an individual user file that stores (some) personalisations.
You cannot work without it and it must never be shared. Documents templates
provide the formatting for individual document types. The two work together
with the document template having priority.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


getravel wrote:
Can someone please explain the difference between Normal.dot and
online templates - each with the exact same styles. Or point me to a
Web site that can explain the difference. Please see my concern
below.

I work in an office where we have Normal.dot set up with the styles
we use in our engineering documents. We also have online Word
templates set up with the same styles so the engineers can enter
their information and the formatting would be applied.

If the online templates contain the styles needed to format the
engineering documents, why do we need Normal.dot to have the same
styles. Why do we need Normal.dot at all???

Any explanation you can offer would ge greatly appreciated.