Expert: Suzanne S. Barnhill - 11/10/2009

Question
Quoted:
"Microsoft Word - Normal.doc
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Expert: Suzanne S. Barnhill - 7/27/2006

Question
My Normal.doc is on the network drive, and it is readonly. so everytime when I close word, it is asking for save. Is there a way to avoid saving normal.doc?
Windows XP/2000
Office 2003


Answer
You can avoid saving by saying no when you get the prompt. Indeed, if Normal.dot is read-only, you have no other choice.

But Normal.dot should never be shared; it is intended to be a personal scratchpad for the individual user, so that you can save your own preferences. See "You cannot share the Normal.dot file among multiple users in Word" at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811468 You might want to show this article to your IT department.

You will not be prompted to save changes in Normal.dot unless you have made changes. If you know that you cannot save changes, then you should avoid making them. That means you should not change any styles in a document based on Normal.dot and check the "Add to template" box, and if you create macros, customize toolbars, create AutoText entries, etc., you should save these customizations in another template. You may want to create your own document templates and/or a global add-in to store these customizations; see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm

You will also not be prompted to save Normal.dot if you clear the "Prompt to save Normal template" box on the Save tab of Tools | Options. This, however, does not mean that Normal.dot is not saved; it just means that Word doesn't have to ask you for permission to do so. Since your Normal.dot is read-only, however, you will likely get an error message when Word is unable to save changes, and I would think this would be more annoying than just clicking No when you get the prompt.

Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word) 1998-2006"

Ok so how do you use word and not change styles formatting etc?

I type a document and I want to make title BOLD/UNDERLINED but you say "That means you should not change any styles in a document based on Normal.dot " So what is the point / wrong?

I keep getting the message " save the normal.dot document" nearly everytime I shut down Word.
I click on No and it opens up a dialog save as box. I have saved the dot under temp names eg normaltemp1.dot next time number 2 etc now I have 15 and it stills asks to save.

So am I doing something wrong?
Thanks David  

Answer
What I actually said was, "you should not change any styles in a document based on Normal.dot and check the 'Add to template' box," and this was meant to apply only to people who know that they cannot save changes in their Normal template (because it is read-only). My suggestion to them was that they save customizations somewhere other than Normal.dot (in document templates and global add-ins).

When you apply direct formatting to text in a document, you are not modifying the style (unless the style is set to update automatically). And you can modify the style in a document without affecting the style in the template (the template style is not changed unless you check the "Add to template" box). For more on this, see http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/templaterelations/index.html

In any case, your situation is different. If you are being prompted to save Normal.dot every time you quit Word even though you know you have made no changes (not modified any styles, not created any macros or AutoText entries, not modified any menus or toolbars), then see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291352

If you have not made ANY changes to Normal.dot that you want to save, I would suggest that you delete all the extra copies (I would recommend that in any case), then rename Normal.dot itself (with Word closed) and let Word create a fresh copy the next time you start. If you continue to be prompted to save the template, it may be that a poorly written add-in is making changes.

Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word) 1999-2009