[TonyL]

I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become corrupt & I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC with Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2 & Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become corrupt &
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2 &
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Mike Starr]

In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years, yet I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't until I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the training wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation... dig up a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it creates a new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template directory (or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm in which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to investigate.), Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that Microsoft in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in such-and-such.dll... why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one on the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't have the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can find a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included in the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default" buttons that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually create a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents) of the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2 &
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already exists if you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it seems to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as 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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years, yet I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't until I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation... dig up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it creates a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template directory (or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one on the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't have the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can find a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included in the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default" buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually create a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents) of the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2 &
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Charles Kenyon]

Saving a blank document as normal.dot is not a good idea! You have lost all
of your AutoText by doing that and may have lost other features as well.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!

My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.


"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years, yet I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't until I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation... dig up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it creates a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template directory (or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one on the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't have the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can find a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included in the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default" buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually create a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents) of the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2 &
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Mike Starr]

The recent announcement by Microsoft that they've made Microsoft Virtual PC
a free product means that it's going to be much easier to test some of these
assumptions. Once I get up to speed with that product, I'm hoping to have
time to do some testing. It would be nice to know exactly what causes these
recent versions of Word to generate a Normal.dot file as well as what
customizations one can make that do not result in the creation of a
Normal.dot file. I think there are some customizations that are stored
elsewhere but that's only one of those "if I'd only been paying attention"
impressions. Unfortunately, the press of everyday work keeps me from a lot
of these really interesting experiments.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already exists if
you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it seems to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the
other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years, yet
I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't until I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation... dig
up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it creates a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the
user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template directory
(or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no
normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the
past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one on
the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't have
the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can find a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included in
the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default" buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually create
a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents) of
the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC
with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro SP2
&
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Many settings are stored in the Registry. AutoCorrect entries (other than
formatted ones) are stored in .acl files, one for each language. See “HOW
TO: Reset User Options and Registry Settings in Word 2002” at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289294. This includes a table of where
settings are stored.

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
The recent announcement by Microsoft that they've made Microsoft Virtual
PC
a free product means that it's going to be much easier to test some of
these
assumptions. Once I get up to speed with that product, I'm hoping to have
time to do some testing. It would be nice to know exactly what causes
these
recent versions of Word to generate a Normal.dot file as well as what
customizations one can make that do not result in the creation of a
Normal.dot file. I think there are some customizations that are stored
elsewhere but that's only one of those "if I'd only been paying attention"
impressions. Unfortunately, the press of everyday work keeps me from a lot
of these really interesting experiments.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a
Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already exists if
you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it seems
to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the
other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years,
yet
I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't until
I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user
template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in
some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation...
dig
up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it creates
a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had
been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the
user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template directory
(or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no
normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the
past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that
Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in
such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one on
the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't have
the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can find
a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included in
the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default"
buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually
create
a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents) of
the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC
with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e
c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot
find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro
SP2
&
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Mike Starr]

Suzanne...

Thanks for the pointer but the article is "currently not available"... I did
searches on the kb id and the title you provided to no avail.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Many settings are stored in the Registry. AutoCorrect entries (other than
formatted ones) are stored in .acl files, one for each language. See “HOW
TO: Reset User Options and Registry Settings in Word 2002” at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289294. This includes a table of where
settings are stored.

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
The recent announcement by Microsoft that they've made Microsoft Virtual
PC
a free product means that it's going to be much easier to test some of
these
assumptions. Once I get up to speed with that product, I'm hoping to
have
time to do some testing. It would be nice to know exactly what causes
these
recent versions of Word to generate a Normal.dot file as well as what
customizations one can make that do not result in the creation of a
Normal.dot file. I think there are some customizations that are stored
elsewhere but that's only one of those "if I'd only been paying
attention"
impressions. Unfortunately, the press of everyday work keeps me from a
lot
of these really interesting experiments.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a
Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already exists
if
you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still
operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it
seems
to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post the
other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known
the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for years,
yet
I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't
until
I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user
template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the
training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that in
some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little investigation...
dig
up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and
find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it
creates
a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that had
been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point, the
user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template
directory
(or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm
in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to
investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no
normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in the
past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that
Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in
such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one
on
the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't
have
the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can
find
a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included
in
the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default"
buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually
create
a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents)
of
the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the PC
with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e
c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot
find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP Pro
SP2
&
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Sorry, I've been bitten by that twice lately. Several articles have been
combined into this one: "How to reset user options and registry settings in
Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2002, and Microsoft Word 2000" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822005

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
Suzanne...

Thanks for the pointer but the article is "currently not available"... I
did
searches on the kb id and the title you provided to no avail.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Many settings are stored in the Registry. AutoCorrect entries (other
than
formatted ones) are stored in .acl files, one for each language. See
“HOW
TO: Reset User Options and Registry Settings in Word 2002” at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289294. This includes a table of
where
settings are stored.

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
The recent announcement by Microsoft that they've made Microsoft
Virtual
PC
a free product means that it's going to be much easier to test some of
these
assumptions. Once I get up to speed with that product, I'm hoping to
have
time to do some testing. It would be nice to know exactly what causes
these
recent versions of Word to generate a Normal.dot file as well as what
customizations one can make that do not result in the creation of a
Normal.dot file. I think there are some customizations that are stored
elsewhere but that's only one of those "if I'd only been paying
attention"
impressions. Unfortunately, the press of everyday work keeps me from a
lot
of these really interesting experiments.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a
Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already
exists
if
you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still
operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it
seems
to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works
Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post
the
other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've known
the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for
years,
yet
I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't
until
I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user
template
location that I was able to make changes to the default template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the
training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that
in
some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little
investigation...
dig
up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002 and
find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it
creates
a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that
had
been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point,
the
user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template
directory
(or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm
in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't know
if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to
investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no
normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in
the
past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that
Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in
such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create one
on
the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't
have
the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can
find
a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting included
in
the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default"
buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually
create
a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial contents)
of
the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has
become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto the
PC
with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e
c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings & cannot
find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP
Pro
SP2
&
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony

[Mike Starr]

Ah, got it. Thanks.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Sorry, I've been bitten by that twice lately. Several articles have been
combined into this one: "How to reset user options and registry settings
in
Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2002, and Microsoft Word 2000"
at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=822005

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
Suzanne...

Thanks for the pointer but the article is "currently not available"... I
did
searches on the kb id and the title you provided to no avail.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Many settings are stored in the Registry. AutoCorrect entries (other
than
formatted ones) are stored in .acl files, one for each language. See
“HOW
TO: Reset User Options and Registry Settings in Word 2002” at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289294. This includes a table of
where
settings are stored.

--
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
The recent announcement by Microsoft that they've made Microsoft
Virtual
PC
a free product means that it's going to be much easier to test some
of
these
assumptions. Once I get up to speed with that product, I'm hoping to
have
time to do some testing. It would be nice to know exactly what
causes
these
recent versions of Word to generate a Normal.dot file as well as
what
customizations one can make that do not result in the creation of a
Normal.dot file. I think there are some customizations that are
stored
elsewhere but that's only one of those "if I'd only been paying
attention"
impressions. Unfortunately, the press of everyday work keeps me from
a
lot
of these really interesting experiments.

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
It is well known that recent versions of Word don't generate a
Normal.dot
till you customize it. But it is assumed that the file already
exists
if
you
think you're having problems with it. As long as Word is still
operating
with the hard-wired version in the executable, it can't very well
be
corrupt.

Your suggestion about the Default... button is intriguing, but it
seems
to
be generally agreed that add-ins (especially the Microsoft Works
Suite
Add-in for Word) are responsible for saving a document in or as
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.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
In the course of investigating the problems that led to my post
the
other
day in m.p.w.a.e, I searched diligently for normal.dot. I've
known
the
techniques outlined in the article you posted the link to for
years,
yet
I
was unable to find a copy of a file named normal.dot. It wasn't
until
I
opened a blank document and saved it as normal.dot in the user
template
location that I was able to make changes to the default
template.

Y'all keep pointing folks to the article that tells them the
training
wheels
techniques for finding a file but the fact of the matter is that
in
some
cases, it just ain't there. I'd recommend a little
investigation...
dig
up
a
freshly installed instance of Windows 2000, install Word 2002
and
find
normal.dot. I think Microsoft made some changes to the way it
creates
a
new,
blank document beginning with Word 2002. I think the stuff that
had
been
normally included in normal.dot has been offloaded to a .dll
file
someplace
that Word uses to source a new blank document. If at some point,
the
user
creates a normal.dot file and places it in the user template
directory
(or
perhaps uses those techniques outlined in

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...alTemplate.htm
in
which
case Word itself might generate a normal.dot file... I don't
know
if
that's
the case or not. Haven't got the bandwidth right now to
investigate.),
Word
then uses that file as the basis for new blank documents.

Obviously, Word has always had the ability to function with no
normal.dot
file... we advise people to delete it all the time and Word (in
the
past)
merrily generates a new one. Is it so strange to conceive that
Microsoft
in
its wisdom may have said "Hey... we really don't need to create
a
normal.dot
file... the default settings are already stored in
such-and-such.dll...
why
do we need to bother creating a normal.dot file? We can create
one
on
the
fly if the user modifies one of the default settings."

I don't want to sound contentious but I consider myself to be an
expert-level Word user and a highly advanced Windows user (don't
have
the
network training to be an expert Windows user) and if anyone can
find
a
missing normal.dot, I can.

I do have a theory on the characters mysteriously getting
included
in
the
default template... is it possible that somehow those "Default"
buttons
that
are the new recommended method for modifying normal.dot actually
create
a
normal.dot file on the fly with the contents (or partial
contents)
of
the
current document?

Best regards

Mike

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm
for
instructions on finding it.

--
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.

"TonyL" wrote in message
...
I have a situation where I beleive my Normal.dot file has
become
corrupt
&
I
want to delete it but I cannot find it. I am logged onto
the
PC
with
Admin
rights & have Show hidden files selected in the My
Computer/Tools/Folder
options

I have also done a manual search in the usual places i.e
c:\program
files\Microsoft Office & also the Document & Settings &
cannot
find
it.

This is a stand alone PC with only 1 local drive running XP
Pro
SP2
&
Office
2003.

Where can it be &/or how can Word run without it? TIA
--
Tony