Share via

My Normal.dotm template gets corrupted

Anonymous
2011-02-15T11:31:57+00:00

Hi all,

Running Vista Home SP1. My Office 2010 (H&S) was bought for a desktop running XP, later I downloaded and installed a copy on my Vista laptop. It is activated ok.

Problem : Excel and PP run fine, but I can't open Word unless I delete the Normal.dotm file first. Word will then open and work fine until I save and close...next time I try to open it, it just hangs.

First thought it may be caused by a language conflict, as my desktop has English OS while my laptop runs Norwegian Vista. However, all 3 apps are configured the same.

What is corrupting the template every time it is used ? Any help appreciated :-)

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous
2011-02-15T12:08:14+00:00

It is not normal for normal(.dot) to be constantly corrupted. (sorry, I couldn't resist...)

First thing you can do is disable updating of normal.dot. File tab / Options command  / Advanced option / Editing Options section. Turn on "prompt to update style" (optional). Save Section, turn on "Prompt before saving Normal Template". OK out. Now, when you are closing Word, if something tries to update normal.dot, you will get a prompt and can say NO to save. In theory, your normal will not be corrupted now.

If you want more security, locate your normal.dotm and turn on the file read-only property. This makes it even harder for "rogue" processes to update your normal.dotm file.

If you want a brute force approach, you could use a shortcut to a batch file to start Word. Before actually starting Word, you could issue a delete command to get rid of normal.dotm, which "fixes" your error message.

If you want try to dig in to the cause of the problem, these are places for you to look:

Hierarchy that controls conflicts - Order of Precedence

Word has a hierarchy that controls conflicts in keyboard shortcuts (& other conflicts such as identically named macros). It could be that a shorcut with a higher priority takes over. In addition, I have found that sometimes you think you are changing the keyboard shortcut only for one template, but it gets changed in nomal.dot as well.

The definition or setting that takes precedence is the one that resides closest to the document. Therefore, Word resolves such conflicts in the following order of priority:

1.Document itself

2.Template attached to the active document

3.Normal template

4.Additional global templates (in startup folder) in alphabetical order

5.Add­ins in alphabetical order

6.Application layer (Word)

The application layer inclurepdes ANY default shortcut. It only resides in one of the other layers when you specifically assign it there!

If several global templates have conflicting settings, Word resolves the conflicts in the order in which the templates are listed in the Templates and Add­Ins dialog box (Tools menu).  Templates in the Word Startup folder appear at the top of the list and have a higher priority. Subsequent ranking on the list is determined by alphabetic order.

Note about the Application layer: You can open a global template, go into the Customize dialog box, & change, say, Ctrl+F4 from DocClose to AllCaps, & save the change in global.dot.  However, the change WILL affect new documents based on the normal template, despite the fact that you saved your changes only to global.dot. If you now look at the assignment of keys in the normal template, it shows that Ctrl+F4 was changed in the normal template. Yet, when you exit Word, you do not get a prompt to save normal.dot, despite having Tools/Options/Save set to prompt for changes.

The reason for this is that all default shortcuts are in the application layer. The default assignment (Ctrl+N = FileNew) is the “application layer”, and has the lowest priority. No matter whether you change the shortcut in the document, the attached template, Normal.dot, or a global template, the customized shortcut will take precedence. But if you assign the same shortcut differently in the document, the attached template, Normal.dot, and a global template, you’ll see that the latter have lower priority.

You can read more athttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4bb7cb10-a6e5-4334-8925-3bcf308cfbaf&displaylang=en - Office 2003 Editions Resource kit Tools

Phil Rabichow

PS: MS, why are there "Save", "Display", "General" sections in the "Advanced" option when there are already separate "Options" for these categories. Come on people, don't be lazy and dump everything under "advanced". BAD DESIGN!  So while you are at it fixing that, move the "file locations" button out to a separate "option", it is important enough to expose.  And Fix the Trust Center!   (yes, I know "officially" ms does not monitor this forum, but there are a number of MS employees who do, who MAYBE will pass this comment on to the "right people", ... hint ... hint ... hint)

If you are reading this tip and it helps you, please click on the  "Vote as Helpful" button to "reward" me with "points"! Thanks

Please click on  Propose as Answer  to let others know the solution that worked for you

Link to: Silverlight Applets Mapping 2003 Menu to 2010 Ribbon for all Office Apps

Link to: Search for 2007 Commands addin PS: MS WHERE IS THE 2010 VERSION!?!?! HintHint!

Link to: Flash Applets Mapping 2003 Menu to 2007 Ribbon for all Office Apps

Was this answer helpful?

10 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

7 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2011-02-16T00:13:34+00:00

    If Word 2010/2007 does not find a NORMAL.DOTM in your personal templates folder it will automatically generate one based on default values hard coded into the winword.exe. That is why I find it so strange that it is corrupted between shutdown and next startup.

    If you are reading this tip and it helps you, please click on the  "Vote as Helpful" button to "reward" me with "points"! Thanks

    Please click on  Propose as Answer  to let others know the solution that worked for you

    Link to: Silverlight Applets Mapping 2003 Menu to 2010 Ribbon for all Office Apps

    Link to: Search for 2007 Commands addin PS: MS WHERE IS THE 2010 VERSION!?!?! HintHint!

    Link to: Flash Applets Mapping 2003 Menu to 2007 Ribbon for all Office Apps

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-15T22:46:10+00:00

    What I mean is : If I open word and then exit, the Normal.dotm file is automatically saved (because the Templates folder is empty ?), and is corrupted in the action. This corrupted file must then be deleted from the Templates folder for Word to start normally again. If I don't, Word uses the corrupt template and will not open, only start in Safe mode. In Word Safe mode, no work is possible since no templates exist.

    I have searched the machine for all instances of Normal.dotm and Normal.dot and *.docx...none are present. Where would it now find an old template  ? What error could make an Office application write garbage into a file while saving it ? The self-repair from Control Panel doesn't work, either, I had already  tried that.

    I am now in the process of removing Office 2010. Then I'll check thoroughly for virus and other stuff I may have missed, rootkits too...right now, I can't see any other 'culprits'.

    Thanks again for your help !

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-15T14:41:47+00:00

    Glad to be of help.

    You say that ANY normal.dotm is automatically corrupt. That is VERY strange, since the first one is generated from within the Word program EXE file! That brings forward 2 more ideas.

    Could it be that you have an old NORMAL.DOT (ie 2003). That in of itself is not a problem. What may be causing the problem is that if there is no NORMAL.DOTM present, Word first looks to see if there is an legacy NORMAL.DOT present. If there is, Word 2010 (and 2007) imports as many of the setting from the old file as it can when it is generating the new one ... ... ... So maybe the problem resides in the old file. Rename it, see what happens.

    Finally, you could try to do a repair of office, just in case there is some subtle corruption of your winword.exe:

    Repair or remove Office 2010 -http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/repair-or-remove-office-2010-HA010357402.aspx?CTT=1

    If you are reading this tip and it helps you, please click on the  "Vote as Helpful" button to "reward" me with "points"! Thanks

    Please click on  Propose as Answer  to let others know the solution that worked for you

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2011-02-15T13:36:01+00:00

    Phil,

    Thanks for your great post ! Useful info for any Office-user :-)

    The first solution worked, of course...don't know why I didn't think of that *LOL*

    But that leaves me in a position where I can't save ANY changes to my template, like formatting and macros etc. Oh well...I can live with that until I dig into the problem more closely. Another funny catch22t is that now there is NO Normal.dotm in the Templates folder at all. But again, as long as word doesn't seem to mind, I'll let that go for the moment and let Word create a new one on each run.

    Write-protecting the Normal.dot in the Templates folder doesn't do any good (I tried that !). It is already corrupt, like any saved Normal.dotm in there will be. The catch22 gives that  the Templates folder must be empty for Word to run.

    Using your excellent explanation of Hierarchy, I'll try to dig deeper into the problem of WHY the template gets corrupted. I see many hours of methodical detective work in my near future... ;-)

    Edit : Ooops...guess I spoke too early. Something is seriously wrong with my Office-installation, Word corrupts ALL saved files. Same with Excel. Haven't tried PP. Hate to do a wipe and re-install of Office, as I had problems with activating. System should be clean, but I'll have a look see for virus etc. (I use Kerio on my XP-maschine and am used to port-level control, but the Vista lap user can't handle that level of security).

    Arrrgh....and while I'm at it, I'll rant a bit about Vista Home, too. Taking control of this OS is difficult, (especially in the Security area) as this laptop has not been maintained by me and came into my hands very recently. It needs some serious pruning and tweaking...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments