Where is the normal template in Word 2008?

Whatever Word does when it creates a Normal, it's different from what
happens when you Save As Template. For one thing, documents created from
a Save As Normal Template don't contain the built-in AutoText entries
(have not retested that in 2008, but it's been the behavior for years).
The second thing is that I'm superstitious--Normal is the fundamental
building block of Word and trying to sub in a weak copy of Normal
strikes me as undesirable, considering the alternate route is no more
difficult. Why mess with it?

That said, as long as you remember you did it, you're probably okay
until/unless you start seeing issues.

By the way, don't put text in the Normal template, it'll mess up Labels
and Envelopes.

Mauricio.RemoveThis@officeformac.com wrote:
> Thanks. But how exactly is "opening up the Word-created normal
> template and making changes to it" different from opening up word,
> making the changes I want in a blank document, and saving it as a
> template in place of the normal one? Am I missing something?
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

You don't. You open the normal template and change it.

Sorry, By Save As Normal Template, I just meant the process of saving it
as a template that you name Normal and put in the location where Word
looks for a normal template (Normal.dotm, in Word 2008)

Mauricio.TakeThisOut@officeformac.com wrote:
> OK, but how exactly do you save as normal template?
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

There is a way to add the Font you want to use.

open a blank document. choose the font you want Word to open with.

Type some letters, a word or sentence. now hit Delete until everything
you typed is gone.

Now save the document and name as Dummy. Now quit word.

It should ask do you want to save changes to Normal. choose (to dos so) yes.

locate dummy document and throw away and empty Trash.

Now when you open Word it will open with your desired Font.

my favorite is ITC Benguiat for writing documents. Helvetica or even
Ariel is boring and hard on the eyes.

Daiya Mitchell wrote:
> Whatever Word does when it creates a Normal, it's different from what
> happens when you Save As Template. For one thing, documents created from
> a Save As Normal Template don't contain the built-in AutoText entries
> (have not retested that in 2008, but it's been the behavior for years).
> The second thing is that I'm superstitious--Normal is the fundamental
> building block of Word and trying to sub in a weak copy of Normal
> strikes me as undesirable, considering the alternate route is no more
> difficult. Why mess with it?
>
> That said, as long as you remember you did it, you're probably okay
> until/unless you start seeing issues.
>
> By the way, don't put text in the Normal template, it'll mess up Labels
> and Envelopes.
>
> Mauricio DeleteThis @officeformac.com wrote:
>> Thanks. But how exactly is "opening up the Word-created normal
>> template and making changes to it" different from opening up word,
>> making the changes I want in a blank document, and saving it as a
>> template in place of the normal one? Am I missing something?

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 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

Phillip, it is far easier to use the Format | Font dialog and select
Default after choosing a font.

And I'm pretty sure that what you said here will not work anyhow.

Phillip Jones wrote:
> There is a way to add the Font you want to use.
>
> open a blank document. choose the font you want Word to open with.
>
> Type some letters, a word or sentence. now hit Delete until everything
> you typed is gone.
>
> Now save the document and name as Dummy. Now quit word.
>
> It should ask do you want to save changes to Normal. choose (to dos
> so) yes.
>
> locate dummy document and throw away and empty Trash.
>
> Now when you open Word it will open with your desired Font.
>
> my favorite is ITC Benguiat for writing documents. Helvetica or even
> Ariel is boring and hard on the eyes.
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

OK - I figured out where the problem lies.<br>
<br>
Word AUTOMATICALLY saves any changes you make in the current document to the Normal template.<br>
<br>
In the preferences, you can set it to ask whether you want this done or not.<br>
<br>
There is no way to tell Word to never save changes to the normal template.<br>
<br>
In the standard configuration, any new documents you create will look like the last you worked on before quitting Word in the previous session. If you want to keep the Normal template unaltered, you need to check the box "prompt before saving changes to the normal template" and select "no" every time. One annoying extra step - feedback going Microsoft's way.
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

Hi Mauricio,

Now I'm entirely confused.

> OK - I figured out where the problem lies.

Uh, what *is* the problem? Last I heard, I'd given you precise
directions to do what you wanted. Where did a problem arise?
>
> Word AUTOMATICALLY saves any changes you make in the current document
> to the Normal template.

No, it doesn't. Period. (Phillip sorta said that, but he was wrong.) The
Normal template should automatically pick up the window size and view
from a regular document, but not much else. How are you defining "look
like"? Look like in terms of window size and view, yes--in terms of
font, spacing, margins: not unless you told it to by clicking Default.
> In the standard configuration, any new documents you create will look
> like the last you worked on before quitting Word in the previous
> session. If you want to keep the Normal template unaltered, you need
> to check the box "prompt before saving changes to the normal template"
> and select "no" every time. One annoying extra step - feedback going
> Microsoft's way.

Why would you want to keep the Normal template unaltered? You should
customize it as much as you want.
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

ONCE I make my changes, I want to keep the Normal template unaltered. What's strange with that? I do not want it picking up every little change from every document I work on.<br>
<br>
I am copying from Word's preferences panel, "save" subpanel, prompt to save normal template" cehckbox:<br>
<br>
"Displays a message every time you quit Word that asks if you want to save any changes made to the default settings, SUCH AS THE FONTS OR THE MARGINS. When the checkbox is cleared, WORD AUTOMATICALLY SAVES YOUR NORMAL TEMPLATE WITHOUT ASKING YOU FIRST."<br>
<br>
That is completely at odds with what you are saying. However, it doesn't seem to work as advertised. So either you are wrong (but my installation is not working), or the description of this preference inside Word is wrong.
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

Hi Mauricio,

You are misreading the preference description. When you click "Default"
in a dialog, then yes, the change is sent to Normal. That's what Default
means--"I want this to be the default setting". But you can change the
Font or Margins without clicking default, and if you don't click
Default, Normal is unaltered, and the preference does not apply, because
you did not change the default settings.

So, yes, *if* you have changed your Normal template, Word will
automatically save it with the changes, unless that box is checked.

But, most things that you do in a document will NOT change the Normal
template. You can make about 80 million changes in your document, and
none of them will affect Normal unless you specifically told them do,
and it's always a separate step to make that happen. It will *not* pick
up every little change you make in every document.

HOWEVER, the window size, zoom, which toolbars are showing, and whether
you are using draft or normal view are a special case. They *do*
automatically persist when you open another document. Word automatically
remembers the last ones when you create a new document--but these are
the *only* settings that automatically change the next document without
you doing something on purpose.

Usually, this is a feature, as if you created a document, and then
immediately have to resize it or change the view to draft because that's
what you like, you'd rather have that happen automatically on the next
document than have to keep re-doing it again or go out of your way to
make that be the default. But there are times when it might be annoying
(and actually, with Notebook Layout and Publishing View, it's getting
more annoying). It should fix itself though--let's say for some reason
you had a document open in Draft View, got annoyed when the second
document was created in Draft view, reset it to Page Layout view, and
then the third document should open in Page Layout view.

But Word is working as designed (although, you've showed me that the
design ought to be fixed).

That said, there's nothing wrong with checking the "prompt to save
Normal" box. In my test, though, it doesn't prevent the next document
from picking up the view, zoom, or size of the last window anyhow. I
think because these are not actually changes to Normal itself, but
settings that Word remembers somewhere else.

Daiya


Mauricio.DeleteThis@officeformac.com wrote:
> ONCE I make my changes, I want to keep the Normal template unaltered.
> What's strange with that? I do not want it picking up every little
> change from every document I work on.
>
> I am copying from Word's preferences panel, "save" subpanel, prompt to
> save normal template" cehckbox:
>
> "Displays a message every time you quit Word that asks if you want to
> save any changes made to the default settings, SUCH AS THE FONTS OR
> THE MARGINS. When the checkbox is cleared, WORD AUTOMATICALLY SAVES
> YOUR NORMAL TEMPLATE WITHOUT ASKING YOU FIRST."
>
> That is completely at odds with what you are saying. However, it
> doesn't seem to work as advertised. So either you are wrong (but my
> installation is not working), or the description of this preference
> inside Word is wrong.
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for bearing with me!
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

Just to be clear on this: If you save a blank document, what you are saving
is NOT a template.

A Template has a different internal file structure to a document.

A Word file is a large set of containers, nested within each other. Many of
those containers are not present in a document: for example ‹ AutoText, VBA,
Toolbars, Keystroke Customisations, etc, etc...

That's not serious if you do not mind wiping out all the standard components
of a Normal template (and there are times when you might want to do
that...).

But I would not do this as a Normal template: there would be quite a bit
missing

Cheers


On 5/02/08 4:53 AM, in article ee8c075.1 RemoveThis @webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
"Mauricio@officeformac.com" wrote:

> Thanks. But how exactly is "opening up the Word-created normal template and
> making changes to it" different from opening up word, making the changes I
> want in a blank document, and saving it as a template in place of the normal
> one? Am I missing something?

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Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

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 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

This is getting more and more confusing with each reply.<br>
<br>
In every version of word so far, when I created a blank document, made changes in default fonts, margins and spacing, saved it choosing the option "as template (.dot)" from the dropdown menu in the "save as" dialogue, and named it "Normal.dot", I created a Normal template. That went into the template folder, and a new document was created in its image, according to its likeness, every time I launched Word.<br>
<br>
I am assuming I can do exactly the same (except for the .dotm extension) in Word 2008. Yes or no?
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

You can, yes, except that you need to tweak the extension *and* the
location for Word 2008, as noted earlier.

What we are trying to make clear is that while you can do it, it's not a
great idea, because Word uses Normal for a lot of things and might choke
on your fake Normal at some point. You should recognize that doing this
is *not* the same thing as letting Word create a Normal template. If it
hasn't caused you problems in the past, then you probably don't need to
worry, but my own preference is not to risk it. And there is no point in
risking it, because I can open up the existing Normal.dotm, change the
font, margins, and spacing, and save it, and get the same result as
saving my own Normal.dotm.

Mauricio.DeleteThis@officeformac.com wrote:
> This is getting more and more confusing with each reply.
>
> In every version of word so far, when I created a blank document, made
> changes in default fonts, margins and spacing, saved it choosing the
> option "as template (.dot)" from the dropdown menu in the "save as"
> dialogue, and named it "Normal.dot", I created a Normal template. That
> went into the template folder, and a new document was created in its
> image, according to its likeness, every time I launched Word.
>
> I am assuming I can do exactly the same (except for the .dotm
> extension) in Word 2008. Yes or no?
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008? 

Well, we are getting somewhere.<br>
<br>
Now, how do I exactly "let Word create a normal template" that has the fonts, spacing and margins I want?
 >> Stay informed about: Where is the normal template in Word 2008?