With respect to the taskpane - see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...owTaskPane.htm
As for the unwanted toolbars, you may have to force them off with autonew
and autoopen macros containing the line

CommandBars("Toolbar Name").Visible = False

where 'toolbar name' is the toolbar you want to switch off.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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





PT wrote:
I've taken over someone's old machine which uses Word 2003. When I
open a new document (File | New), it has the following features,
which I'd like to eliminate: the Task Pane is active, and several
unwanted toolbars appear on the top of the screen.

Here's what I tried (unsuccessfully).

1. I opened a new doc using File | New.
2. On the new doc, I closed out the unwanted task pane and toolbars.
3. I saved the resulting doc as a template, which I named
normal1.dot, in the same folder as the original normal.dot.
4. I used Windows Explorer to navigate to the Templates folder,
deleted normal.dot, and renamed normal1.dot as normal.dot
5. I reopened Word and tried File | New again

No change from the original.

What have i missed?