Change normal.dot settings

Question

How can i change settings so that whenever I open MS Word in office, the pages is always set up with the proper fonts, margins, footnotes etc....  I'm sure there is a way, but I can't seem to find it.  I think it's maybe i upgraded to MS Windows7

Thanks

AJF

Answer 1

Maybe I wasn't clear, and after reading what I posted I see that I wasn't. 

 

I recently installed W7 and as a result I had to install MS Office again.  Once I did, my MS Word 2007 looked very different.  I had a IT guy at the University where I teach make everything on my computer sing the way I wanted it to.

 

I do only 2 things on my office computer.  I write papers and reports in MS Word and incorporate Excel charts into many proposals etc... and I catalog thousands of images mostly jpgs and tiff files in the many hard drives that i have access to.

 

I don't have time to wait for IT to do this and wanted to do it over the holiday break at the Univ. 

1.  How can I make a global setting (not a template), that everytime i open MS Word, every page that opens will be the same.  I'd like to control thinks link margins, fonts, sizes etc....  I know what i need to do and can do that, but I only want to do it once not with every document that I write.  I read something about normal.dotm file.  I found it on my computer in several places, and deleted them when I found out it wasn't the one I had before.  Now when I open MS Word it made a new normal.dot file.  However when I open it to make global setting changes, it opens as a "document1" file.  Do I just save it as the normal.dotm?  I did not want to do this without knowing for sure that is what has to be done once I make the changes.

Thanks for your help

Dr. AJF

No, you do not just save it as Normal.dotm.

If you follow the instructions that I gave in my original response, you would not need to open the Normal.dotm template as when you click on the Default button, you will be asked if you want to make the settings the default for all documents created from the Normal.dotm template.

If you want to actually open the Normal.dotm template, then in Word, you must use File>Open and then navigate to the templates folder and select Normal.dotm.  Or, in Windows Explorer, you must right click on the Normal.dotm template and select Open.

Answer 2

I see...Ok.. Since my last post, I have followed your instructions, and all is well.  I'm back to work.  thanks so much for your assistance.

Dr AJF

Answer 3

Maybe I wasn't clear, and after reading what I posted I see that I wasn't. 

I recently installed W7 and as a result I had to install MS Office again.  Once I did, my MS Word 2007 looked very different.  I had a IT guy at the University where I teach make everything on my computer sing the way I wanted it to.

I do only 2 things on my office computer.  I write papers and reports in MS Word and incorporate Excel charts into many proposals etc... and I catalog thousands of images mostly jpgs and tiff files in the many hard drives that i have access to.

I don't have time to wait for IT to do this and wanted to do it over the holiday break at the Univ. 

1.  How can I make a global setting (not a template), that everytime i open MS Word, every page that opens will be the same.  I'd like to control thinks link margins, fonts, sizes etc....  I know what i need to do and can do that, but I only want to do it once not with every document that I write.  I read something about normal.dotm file.  I found it on my computer in several places, and deleted them when I found out it wasn't the one I had before.  Now when I open MS Word it made a new normal.dot file.  However when I open it to make global setting changes, it opens as a "document1" file.  Do I just save it as the normal.dotm?  I did not want to do this without knowing for sure that is what has to be done once I make the changes.

Thanks for your help

Dr. AJF

Answer 4

How can i change settings so that whenever I open MS Word in office, the pages is always set up with the proper fonts, margins, footnotes etc....  I'm sure there is a way, but I can't seem to find it.  I think it's maybe i upgraded to MS Windows7

Thanks

AJF

For the font, on the Home tab of the Ribbon, click on the Dialog Launcher in the Font section and make the required changes and then click on the Default button and click on Yes in the dialog that appears.

Like wise, for the margins, on the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon, click on the Dialog Launcher in the Page Setup section and make the required changes and then click on the Default button.

I do not know what you are after when you mention "footnotes"  However, you may want to do something similar with the Paragraph formatting, which would be done via the Dialog Launcher in the Paragraph section of the Home tab of the Ribbon.

In addition, you may want to consider defining Styles that incorporate variations to the default formatting to facility the use of different formats in your documents.

Answer 5

"it's maybe I upgraded to Win7" ??? did you miss the word "Because" you upgraded"?  If that is it, the answer is no.

What settings exactly do you want to change? There are many places to change defaults.  When you change a setting, look for a "set as default" button. Many of the dialogs have them.

Or you can open the template, typically NORMAL.DOTX, for editing and make the changes there. I find that a more reliable method. Many people find that using the "set as default" buttons is not reliable, the changes aren't always saved.