Toolbar customization doesn’t hold (XP SP2, Word 2003 SP1)

Topic

New Reply

I customize my toolbars all the time for exactly the way I use them and have never had problems before, but for over a month now, every time I go into Word, I have to customize the toolbar again! I take out a few things I don’t use, and insert another ‘Save’ – things like that. I have inserted 2 other ‘Saves’ on the Toolbar previously, which are still there, as well as my previous changes.
But these last changes I am making simply go away. Anybody have any idea what in the world in happening? This is very aggravating and a waste of time. Grrrr!
Anybody have any ideas?
Thank you,
Julia Henson

Reply | Quote

Replies

There might be a problem with the Data key in the registry. See Phil Rabichow’s Systematic Approach to Behavioral Problems in Word (97/2000).

Reply | Quote

Thank you for your response. My version of Word is 2003, but I am assuming that you know there is something in there that will help me anyway, so I will check it out. Thank you,
Julia

Reply | Quote

Phil Rabichow’s post was originally written before Word 2003 came out, but the steps he outlines are valid there too. He has later added a remark about Word 2003 at the top of the post.

Reply | Quote

Yes, I saw that Hans. Have printed the pages on the various sites that are pertinent and will do the various things suggested. Thanks very much!
Julia

Reply | Quote

Well, sure enough, the site you gave tells how to troubleshoot Word 2003. I will follow those directions. And it deals with Templates, too “JTill”! Thank you Hans.
Wish me luck!
Thanks so much,
Julia

Reply | Quote

Is this problem happening with existing documents, or with new documents, or both? If it is happening with existing documents, maybe the document has been set to automatically update to a template. On my older version of Word, the option is Tools…..Templates and Add-ins…..checkbox.

Reply | Quote

My experience is that when you customize the Toolbar, that it opens that way no matter what it is – a new document or an existing one. In this case, I have changed the toolbar both in brand new documents and in existing documents. doesn’t work. I don’t know anything about Templates, but maybe I did something unknowingly and created this monster all by myself! I’ll check it out! Thanks so much for your response.
Julia

Reply | Quote

When you customize a toolbar, you have the choice as to where that change is saved, for example, in Normal.dot, in the document’s attached template, or in the document itself. Word will morph the menus and toolbars to try to reconcile all of the different customizations applicable to a particular document (plus any global templates and add-ins). Thus, you might consider the possibility that some of the changes were not saved in Normal.dot, or that some attached template conflicts in some manner with Normal.dot. Of course, this might not be applicable to your environment if all documents are based on Normal.dot (the “blank document” template).

Reply | Quote

Thank you for the additional information. I don’t know anything about those things, but I do remember that a couple ‘funny’ windows came up referencing the ‘normal.dot’ file. I’ll bet I did something interesting to cause that! I don’t have any Add-ins, that I know of, nor have I ever used a Template.
After reading the articles you referred me to, I am first going to be sure that I have the ‘full’ version of Word installed and do the automatic fix. Then see what happens.
Thank you,
Julia

Reply | Quote

One of those dialogs might be the prompt to save changes to normal.dot. Under Tools>Options…, General tab, you can check a box to have Word notify you when Normal.dot has changes that you might want or not want to save. This was added so that if a user’s Normal.dot template had just become infected by a macro virus, she could say “no” and that way the infection would not be present in the next session.

The dialog typically is presented only when you exit Word. Sometimes Word has been open so long you can’t remember what you did — for example, saving an AutoText entry, or adding a toolbar button, or changing a style and ticking the checkbox to change the template — so your natural reaction is “No, thank you.” This could explain why some changes weren’t there the next time you started Word.

To save changes to normal.dot immediately, you can use the File>Save All command. This only appears if you hold the shift key when clicking File, and might require that at least one document be open.

Reply | Quote

Good Grief! I recognized what you were saying immediately. Yes! That is what must have happened. I didn’t understand what it was saying when the window came up, and I said “Thank you, No”, just like you said. I’m going to go make those changes again and use the Save All, as you suggest. Thank you for the response.
I’ll let you know,
Julia Henson

Reply | Quote