Word2K – Prompt to overwrite Normal.DOT

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I’ve got a client who is being prompted to overwrite her Normal.DOT file when she exits Word 2000 (sometimes).

I’ve checked her hard drive and she has only one Normal.DOT file. The File Locations within Word is pointing to that one file. She’s not being prompted to save changes, it’s telling her that the file already exists and does she want to overwrite it.

I searched the MS Knowledge Base site and came up with nothing. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Sue

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I’ve quite a different problem with saving normal.dot in word2k – but at least the topic sounds equal, thats why i place it here.

Word2000: By closing Word you have either the possibility to be prompted to save normal.dot (Tools-Options-Save-Prompt to save normal Template[checked]) or the template will be saved without me being asked.

What I need, is a commend sequence (or a macro), which makes it possible to close Word without saving normal.dot regardless whether the template has been changed or not.
Can anyone help me?

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The command to close a document without saving changes is:
ActiveDocument.Close SaveChanges:=

The SaveChanges options can be one of the following WdSaveOptions constants: wdDoNotSaveChanges, wdPromptToSaveChanges, or wdSaveChanges.

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You can try putting this code in a close event:

Normaltemplate.Saved = true

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Nice tip – But not the solution of this problem, i’m afraid!
Does still save on changes (or ask), even if you place “NormalTemplate.Saved = True” in Close() and AutoExit().

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Well, here’s a good place to start:

Tools>Options>Save>Prompt to Save Normal template

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That option is already off. She is not being prompted to SAVE changes to the Normal.dot, she is being prompted about OVERWRITING the Normal.dot. Not the same thing.

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Let me ask you this: does the user in question share this PC with other users who also use Word?

The reason I ask is your problem seems related to others dealing with corrupted Normal.dot files. Of course, Normal gets corrupted other ways too. But try this:

Exit Word. Find the Normal.dot file for the user in question and copy it somewhere under another name. Delete all Normal.dots on the local drives. Restart Word and then exit again. Does Word prompt to overwrite Normal now?

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Kevin,

That was my first thought. But the PC is not shared and there is only one Normal.dot file on the hard drive, which has been deleted (a couple of times). The other freaky thing is that it doesn’t happen all the time and I haven’t figured out any consistancies about when it does/doesn’t. There are no macros in the Normal.dot. The only thing I can think of is to remove and reinstall Word, but I don’t really want to do that if I don’t have to.

I have a vague recollection of having dealt with this before but no memory of what the problem ended up being or how I fixed it.

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Have you checked Normal or any global templates for a virus. I don’t mean to insult your intelligence, but I’m always overlooking the obvious myself.

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I haven’t done a manual scan of the workstation…

Our workstation virus definitions are automatically updated whenever a machine logs onto the network and the system automatically does a scan every week. As of yesterday at noon, it was virus-free.

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Just to add a couple of thoughts:

If for some reason Word is not shutting down properly, it might leave an open temp file for Normal.dot, or possibly even an instance of Word still running – might be worth checking for these when the problem occurs.

Also as was discussed in a recent thread (on the Ikonboard forum – now gone), turning off the prompt to save Normal.dot is not a good idea, whether done via options or via code. Actually Kevin I think you were in on that one – I agreed with you regarding saving attached template via code, but Dave A. came in with a brimstone warning against saving Normal.dot that way – and I have to agree with him – no?

Gary

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Just a note: I need to make sure every user has the same styles, page settings, etc. for Normal documents, so my code opens Normal as a document (if the changes have not been applied), copies styles from a template, makes default changes then saves it on the close. This works just fine, so programmatically altering Normal does not seem like a danger zone, if that is what you are referring to.

You’ve got a good point about the normal temp file. Sue, is there a ~$normal.dot file that still exists after the user exists Word? How about any other Word created ~$ files. Delete ’em all.

One other idea. Open Normal.dot and save it. Exit Word. Open Word and exit. Still prompted?

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OK, if you are using code to save Normal.dot as part of your administrative routine, fine. I guess I didn’t think of that scenario; I was thinking more in terms of not building that into something distributed to users.

Now, isn’t it time to get all your styles etc. out of your users’ Normal.dots, and into global and workgroup templates, where they belong?

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Well, those styles are in the global templates AND in the Normals. What happens if a user decides to create a scratch document? Should not the font match the company default by way of the body text style by way of the normal style? And what if that user wants a numbered list just like the numbered lists in a template document? Hey, mon, if there’s a better way, I’m all ears (no emoticon with huge ears).

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Sure: create an “OurCo.NameBlank”. Put all your firm’s styles and customizations in that. Tell users that’s the one to use to create scratch documents in the required OurCo. style.
Then you can leave the users’ Normal.dot alone and leave it to them to screw that one up.

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Gary,

This post got me thinking and now it’s got me Thanking. Thanks!

I added a FileNewDefault sub and documents.add with our “company” blank template as parameter. The Company template is on the server so I don’t have to copy it down to PCs. This really works great. A user can still make a Normal.dot document using File>New>Blank Document, but that should be ok.

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If you do not check the [Tools-options-save-prompt to save normal template] Word2000 is saving normal.dot (like i wrote before – just without any dialogue).

So what i would prefer is not saving normal.dot. The only way I know is with the dialogue (which you can turn on/off like you wrote) and then clicking on “no”. Is there no “automatic” method (I’m not editing normal.dot)?

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Pat,

As I understand it, Word gives you 2 choices: 1) Save Normal.DOT with changes or 2) Prompt to save changes, to which you can say “No”.

There’s no built-in way to automatically not save changes. You’d have to write an AutoExit macro that closed Word without saving the Normal.DOT, I’d think.

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That’s what i’m thinking about in the meantime – but i couldn’t find a way to trick W2k not to save the normal.dot file if there has occured a change. Do you know how to do that? Thanks!

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I know of no way to do that without a macro.

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Hi hotovecse:
I hope I’m not repeating something, but I found it very difficult to follow this thread–2 different questions. When this has happened to me (asking to overwrite normal.dot), it’s been 1 of 2 situations:
1. temp files (do a search for ~*.*,*.tmp on the hard drive & delete them all. If one’s in use, Window’s doesn’t let you delete them.
2. At work, on a network, the administrator has a default normal.dot. I created an AutoExec macro to make changes to it whenever I open Word. If Word crashes, I get that message. I believe someone offered a solution for using an AutoExit macro & I agree that’s the best solution.

Hope this helps.

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Phil,

You’re right…the extra thread does make it confusing.

And I think your *.tmp idea is a good one…I’ll try that.

Thanks!
Sue

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One nice advancement in the flawed shutdown process in other versions of Windows is the way Windows 2000 handles this problem: it tries and usually succeeds in removing the WINWORD.EXE process from memory thus eliminating the problems on a restart. I absolutely loathed the idea of having to train users to check the task list for WINWORD.EXE if they experienced problems of this nature. We had consultants upgrade us to Win2k and I have one less headache to worry about. Just thought I’d pass that along.

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