Normal.dot and My Macros.dot

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We use Word 97 SR2.

I just read Woody Leonhard’s Word 97 Annoyances, a really good book. One of the recommendations he makes in the book is to create a My Macros.dot. Did that, no problem.

Also, I made most of the macros that were recommended which are stored in My Macros.dot. I can see that many of our users should have these macros available. I did a test on one of our computers and copied my new Normal and My Macros.dot to it. It seemed to work just fine.

My question to you all is, is this a safe practice to start to implement? I understand that copying Normal.dot to another computer will write over their Normal.dot and if they had any special modifications to it, they would be lost. But, I don’t think our users are sophisticated enough to purposefully modify it.

Also, where is Normal.dot supposed to be stored? I find it in c:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeTemplates. On the Lounge, others have said their Normal.dot is in other locations. I need to know this because I am going to distribute Normal.dot and My Macros.dot with a DOS batch program and want to make sure I put them in the right place. (I know My Macros.dot goes in the Startup folder in Office).

Thanks.

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Your users don’t have to be sophisticated to modify Normal. It happens all by itself! What do you have in your Normal.dot that you want to copy into theirs?

You should be able to copy those things into MyMacros.dot instead.

MyMacros.dot is what is called a Global template. If you are using it to share things, you probably don’t want or need a bunch of copies of it floating around having to be updated.

See http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm%5B/url%5D for methods of distributing global templates.

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Thanks, Chas. Of course, you are right. After reading your articles I know to leave Normal.dot alone. You have some good information. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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