Word 2003 defaults

Topic

New Reply

Anyone know of a way to permanently change the default settings in Word 2003, so I can customize it to my needs? Thanks!

Reply | Quote

Replies

Anyone know of a way to permanently change the default settings in Word 2003, so I can customize it to my needs? Thanks!

Find your Normal.dot template and copy it to Normal-orig.dot. (I use the Everywhere search engine — from http://www.voidtools.com — to find files quickly and easily).

In Word, open the default template (NORMAL.dot), set up your desired formats and settings, and save the doc to a new template (YOURNAME.dot).

Now, when you want to use your template, do File/Open and pick your version. Don’t forget to save your work under a new filename (and use .doc, not .dot) to avoid overwriting your custom .dot file.

This may cover the defaults you are interested in changing.

Reply | Quote

Find your Normal.dot template and copy it to Normal-orig.dot. ***

In Word, open the default template (NORMAL.dot), set up your desired formats and settings, and save the doc to a new template (YOURNAME.dot).

Now, when you want to use your template, do File/Open and pick your version. Don’t forget to save your work under a new filename (and use .doc, not .dot) to avoid overwriting your custom .dot file.

This may cover the defaults you are interested in changing.

It is not necessary to open the normal template to create a new template. One simply saves a document as a template. However, a new template will not change the defaults in Word, but merely the defaults in documents based on the new template. Most changes to Word defaults can be changed through the user interface without opening Normal.dot directly. (See my previous reply for links.)

It is important to distinguish between opening a template for editing and creating a new document based on the template which can be edited (the default action). One does not use File>Open to use a template. If you double-click on a template, the default action is to create a new document. The only reason to use File>Open with a template is to modify the template.

Reply | Quote

See How to Open or Find the Normal Template in Word.

However, many defaults can be changed without directly opening the Normal template. See How to Change the Default Settings in Word on the MVP site.

Note, though, that the Normal template should not contain any text, including in headers or footers. If you want that, you should instead use a separate custom template. Templates in Microsoft Word

Reply | Quote

It is perfectly possible to set things up so that once you have created a new template, you can use it in all cases of opening a new document. Create a new NORMAL template, save it somewhere on your system (e.g. a Templates folder) and then alter the default file location for Word. This can be done via Tools/Options/File Locations, and altering User Templates to point to the folder containing your new NORMAL template.

It is possible for your new template to utilise Macros to create specialised buttons that you want to use regularly, for example viewing at say 200%, or for fractions such as a quarter, half or threequarters if you prefer that over using 0.25 etc. If you do that, you will probably want to modify the button image, which is easy enough although a little time-consuming. Note that if you have the same special button image in Excel, it can be copied from there into Word provided both programs are in Customize mode.

Reply | Quote

It is perfectly possible to set things up so that once you have created a new template, you can use it in all cases of opening a new document. Create a new NORMAL template, save it somewhere on your system (e.g. a Templates folder) and then alter the default file location for Word. This can be done via Tools/Options/File Locations, and altering User Templates to point to the folder containing your new NORMAL template.

It is possible for your new template to utilise Macros to create specialised buttons that you want to use regularly, for example viewing at say 200%, or for fractions such as a quarter, half or threequarters if you prefer that over using 0.25 etc. If you do that, you will probably want to modify the button image, which is easy enough although a little time-consuming. Note that if you have the same special button image in Excel, it can be copied from there into Word provided both programs are in Customize mode.

I agree, although I would store the customizations in a custom Global Template stored in Word’s Startup Folder rather than in the normal template. They are more transportable/sharable there and less subject to the slings and arrows thrown at the normal template.

I would also emphasize that any normal template must be create by Word as a normal template. You cannot take a document, even one based on the normal template, and save it as a template to replace the normal template. Or at least you can’t do this and have a fully-functional normal template. You can modify a normal template created by Word.

Also, I would not change the location for the user templates folder to do this. That folder holds much more than the normal template in the usual Word installation. I would simply modify the normal template. Templates in Microsoft Word

Reply | Quote