[Les Cooperson]

A while back, I had customized my Word (2003) task bars, menus, and added
several command macros to the tool bar area (at top of screen) for functions
I use all of the time. Upon exit from Word, I was prompted if I wanted to
save these to Normal.dot. I replied 'yes'. Now, after several months of
'customization bliss,' the old, DEFAULT Menu and task bar is back! How can I
get back my customized Normal.dot?!! I miss it terribly! I can't eat or
sleep or play ping pong, etc!!!! HELP!!!! -- Seriously, is there a secret
place where Word creates and stores backup versions of Normal.dot - for users
like me??? Please help!

[Summer]

Look for Normal.dot (do a search - see what you find) better still just get
it from your BACKUP.

You at some point have overwritten it. When you customise Normal.dot - copy
it and rename it MyNormal.dot or Firm.dot and store this in your Startup
directory so it becomes a global add-in. Unless you are careful you will
overwrite Normal.dot with all sorts of changes you don't really want as it
appears you did.

And always backup daily.

There is plenty of info in this NewsGroup about Normal.dot.

Hope this helps.

"Les Cooperson" Les wrote in message
...
A while back, I had customized my Word (2003) task bars, menus, and added
several command macros to the tool bar area (at top of screen) for
functions
I use all of the time. Upon exit from Word, I was prompted if I wanted to
save these to Normal.dot. I replied 'yes'. Now, after several months of
'customization bliss,' the old, DEFAULT Menu and task bar is back! How
can I
get back my customized Normal.dot?!! I miss it terribly! I can't eat or
sleep or play ping pong, etc!!!! HELP!!!! -- Seriously, is there a
secret
place where Word creates and stores backup versions of Normal.dot - for
users
like me??? Please help!

[Jay Freedman]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:29:01 -0700, Les Cooperson Les
wrote:

A while back, I had customized my Word (2003) task bars, menus, and added
several command macros to the tool bar area (at top of screen) for functions
I use all of the time. Upon exit from Word, I was prompted if I wanted to
save these to Normal.dot. I replied 'yes'. Now, after several months of
'customization bliss,' the old, DEFAULT Menu and task bar is back! How can I
get back my customized Normal.dot?!! I miss it terribly! I can't eat or
sleep or play ping pong, etc!!!! HELP!!!! -- Seriously, is there a secret
place where Word creates and stores backup versions of Normal.dot - for users
like me??? Please help!

It's probably too late now, but... If you had checked the option
"Always create backup copy" in Tools Options Save, then there
would be a file named "Backup of Normal.wbk" in your Templates folder
(by default, at %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates) containing a copy of
Normal.dot as it was just before the most recent save.

The reappearance of the old Normal.dot is an illusion. When Word
starts, it tries to load Normal.dot from the Templates folder. If the
file doesn't exist with that name in that location, or if it can't be
opened for some reason, then Word writes a new copy based on its
internal defaults. That's what you see now.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.