Since upgrading to Office 2003 we are prompted every time that we exit word
if we want to update the global template normal.dot.

Can this be suppressed

You may get advice to change your settings so you no longer see this
message. That can be done but this is like advice to take the batteries out
of your three smoke detectors because they keep buzzing and you don't know
why. It is essential that you have a good virus detection/elimination
program on your computer if you are connected to the Internet. (but see the
third paragraph about Norton AV)

The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning. It
suppplements your virus detector and handles other potential problems. Its
display means that changes have been made, whether you intended to make
changes or not. You can also get it when your template has been altered by a
poorly written Add-In program or by a virus.

The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a poorly
written Add-In. The Norton AV Office Plug-In seems to be the most frequent
offender recently, but that can change as some other poorly written program
comes on the market.

Other offenders include the MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, and
Adobe Acrobat. These all install Add-Ins that mess with your normal.dot when
they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so. Some of these are .dot files,
others are installed. See URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)

Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.

If not...

If you start Word using
Start = Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seing. When you close it, you won't get the
"normal.dot" prompt. Doing this may fix the problem, by itself, but probably
will not. Generally, it is a diagnostic, not a fix.

So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.

If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.

Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.

Hope this helps,
--

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://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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"Nick goodwin" Nick wrote in message
...
Since upgrading to Office 2003 we are prompted every time that we exit
word
if we want to update the global template normal.dot.

Can this be suppressed

It can (Tools Options Save : 'Prompt to save Normal template') -- but
before doing that you should check what is causing the change. Most changes
are harmless and you want to save them (style definitions, autotext, etc).
Do you get the message if you open Word then close it immediately, without
doing anything? -- if so, you need to investigate.




"Nick goodwin" Nick wrote in message
...
Since upgrading to Office 2003 we are prompted every time that we exit
word
if we want to update the global template normal.dot.

Can this be suppressed

Nick goodwin wrote:
Since upgrading to Office 2003 we are prompted every time that we
exit word if we want to update the global template normal.dot.

Can this be suppressed

In addition to the advice from fellow contributors, note that you will get
this prompt if there are orphaned temporary files resulting from earlier
crashes. http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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

See €œWord prompts me to save changes to the Normal.dot template€�
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...514521033.aspx

--
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.

"Nick goodwin" Nick wrote in message
...
Since upgrading to Office 2003 we are prompted every time that we exit
word
if we want to update the global template normal.dot.

Can this be suppressed