Hello, I'm using WordXP (2003) on a WinXP-pro PC. Now, when I close Word
down, I often (but not always) get this error message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/!\ Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot.
Do you want to save those changes?
[Yes] [No] [Cancel]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been answering "no" until figure out what's going on

I don't (yet) have a corrletion of exactly what was done when I see this
error upon closing...but I used to "never" get this error... it just started
a few days ago...haven't installed any software or anything.


I start documents different ways... sometimes double click the file,
sometimes open Word and do File Open, sometimes I just use Start My
Recent Documents. Don't know if that has anything to do with it. I also
have Adboe Acrobat, and sometimes make pdf's. And have 2 printers on a
network. Just throwing out some things in case something triggers an idea.

Would appreciate any suggestions,
Thanks,
George

See “Word 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.

"George" wrote in message
...
Hello, I'm using WordXP (2003) on a WinXP-pro PC. Now, when I close Word
down, I often (but not always) get this error message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/!\ Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot.
Do you want to save those changes?
[Yes] [No] [Cancel]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been answering "no" until figure out what's going on

I don't (yet) have a corrletion of exactly what was done when I see this
error upon closing...but I used to "never" get this error... it just
started
a few days ago...haven't installed any software or anything.


I start documents different ways... sometimes double click the file,
sometimes open Word and do File Open, sometimes I just use Start My
Recent Documents. Don't know if that has anything to do with it. I also
have Adboe Acrobat, and sometimes make pdf's. And have 2 printers on a
network. Just throwing out some things in case something triggers an
idea.

Would appreciate any suggestions,
Thanks,
George

Thanks, I did try steps in the Microsoft publication, but they didn't seem
to work, wondered if had other ideas.

Narrowing it down, one thing noticed is... the normal.dot warning upon exit
ONLY appears if I use Outlook to reply to an email... Word is the default
Word processor. The error does not occur if I just open/close MSWord
documents or start up from the MS Word icon on the desktop.

Also tried renaming to normalOLD.dot and creating a new normal.dot, but that
didn't work either.

Wondered if I should also post in the Outlook group

Thanks,
George


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See “Word 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.

"George" wrote in message
...
Hello, I'm using WordXP (2003) on a WinXP-pro PC. Now, when I close
Word
down, I often (but not always) get this error message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/!\ Changes have been made that affect the global template,
Normal.dot.
Do you want to save those changes?
[Yes] [No] [Cancel]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been answering "no" until figure out what's going on

I don't (yet) have a corrletion of exactly what was done when I see this
error upon closing...but I used to "never" get this error... it just
started
a few days ago...haven't installed any software or anything.


I start documents different ways... sometimes double click the file,
sometimes open Word and do File Open, sometimes I just use Start My
Recent Documents. Don't know if that has anything to do with it. I
also
have Adboe Acrobat, and sometimes make pdf's. And have 2 printers on a
network. Just throwing out some things in case something triggers an
idea.

Would appreciate any suggestions,
Thanks,
George

Hi,

There is no reason to use Word as your email editor that I know of. The one
built into Outlook is quite good. What follows is my "one size fits all"
response to problems. It almost certainly covers some of the same ground as
the KB article but may have other ideas for you.
--
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
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customizat...sInstalled.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://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
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.


"George" wrote in message
...
Thanks, I did try steps in the Microsoft publication, but they didn't seem
to work, wondered if had other ideas.

Narrowing it down, one thing noticed is... the normal.dot warning upon
exit
ONLY appears if I use Outlook to reply to an email... Word is the default
Word processor. The error does not occur if I just open/close MSWord
documents or start up from the MS Word icon on the desktop.

Also tried renaming to normalOLD.dot and creating a new normal.dot, but
that
didn't work either.

Wondered if I should also post in the Outlook group

Thanks,
George


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
See "Word 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.

"George" wrote in message
...
Hello, I'm using WordXP (2003) on a WinXP-pro PC. Now, when I close
Word
down, I often (but not always) get this error message:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/!\ Changes have been made that affect the global template,
Normal.dot.
Do you want to save those changes?
[Yes] [No] [Cancel]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been answering "no" until figure out what's going on

I don't (yet) have a corrletion of exactly what was done when I see
this
error upon closing...but I used to "never" get this error... it just
started
a few days ago...haven't installed any software or anything.


I start documents different ways... sometimes double click the file,
sometimes open Word and do File Open, sometimes I just use Start My
Recent Documents. Don't know if that has anything to do with it. I
also
have Adboe Acrobat, and sometimes make pdf's. And have 2 printers on a
network. Just throwing out some things in case something triggers an
idea.

Would appreciate any suggestions,
Thanks,
George

Thanks,
Ok, I'm getting started here, a step at a time...

First thing noticed when did run winword.exe /a was something like...
"MS Word has recovered the following file"
normal.dot
(I cancelled out of this)

Then went to
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP ... and it only has two
things that look like temp files
~$ALMAPP.DOT
~$FMaker.dot

Am I on the right track so far? Anything look odd so far?
Thanks a million, will keep chipping away at it

George

These are the "owner files" for PALMAPP.DOT, an add-in added by your Palm
Pilot, and PDFMaker.dot, which is added by Adobe Acrobat. If these add-ins
are still present, the temp files should be deleted when you quit Word, but
if you have deleted the add-ins themselves, you may need to delete the temp
files manually.

--
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.

"George" wrote in message
...
Thanks,
Ok, I'm getting started here, a step at a time...

First thing noticed when did run winword.exe /a was something like...
"MS Word has recovered the following file"
normal.dot
(I cancelled out of this)

Then went to
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP ... and it only has two
things that look like temp files
~$ALMAPP.DOT
~$FMaker.dot

Am I on the right track so far? Anything look odd so far?
Thanks a million, will keep chipping away at it

George