Changes to Normal Template Do Not Save

Question

I'm trying to change the default margins and font in Word 2010 on my home computer (Windows 7).  This was a clean installation, not an upgrade.   When I make the changes and tell it to change the Normal template, the changes don't save (I don't get a confirmation window when closing the document).  At work (same OS and version of Office) I get a confirmation window when I close a document and have modified the Normal template.

I've even tried changing the Normal template in ...users/.../office/template but it still doesn't work.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

It sounds as though you haven't opened the normal template, but a document based on it. There are no Words in a normal template and it is already named normal.dotm, so you are just opening editing and saving it.

From the Word File menu > Open > navigate to the user templates folder shown in Doug's initial reply and open normal.dotm. Make the changes you require then save it. Close the template and now create a new document from it.

It also sounds as though you are trying to open the template from Windows Explorer. Don't do that. This will not open the normal template and if you create new documents from Explorer, rather than from Word, your normal template is not involved. Word uses its inbuilt defaults to perform that task. You need to open Word first.

With Word closed make sure that there are no orphan lock files - http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

Answer 2

That was it - thank you both!  I had been opening the Normal template through Explorer like you said.  When I opened it following your intructions I got the confirmation box upon closing it and the changes saved.  Not sure why it stopped saving the changes when opening a new Word file to begin with, but opening the Normal template through word definitely worked.

Answer 3

There's a chance that you have an orphan instance of Word running.

Go to the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and then go to the Processes tab and end any WINWORD.EXE process.  Then try my original instructions again.  When you open the Normal.dotm template, Normal.dotm should appear in the title bar of Word and you should most definitely be able to save it without it being automatically renamed.

Just curious, but what was the automatically assigned name that you got before.

Answer 4

I appreciate the advice.  I tried it but it didn't help.  The actual Normal template won't let me save the changes (it automatically renames the file).  I saved the revised file to my desk top, renamed it Normal.dotm, deleted the orginal, and moved the revised file to the appropriate folder.  When I open a blank Word document I get an error message and the changes still don't take effect (so I restored the orginal).

Prior to this I unistalled Office and re-installed it.  It kept the changes I made to the ribbon when I reinstalled it so it obviously wasn't removed from the registry when I did the unistall.

This is not the end of the world - not being able to figurre it out bothers me more than the defaults I'm trying to change.  :)

Answer 5

The Normal.dotm template will be in C:\Users[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates.

You could open that file and make the changes.  Before saving it, add some text and then delete it so that Word does really think that the file has been changed.

Note, Under File>Options>Advanced>Save, there is a box that needs to be checked for you to be asked if you want to save the Normal template.