The message "Changes have been made that affect the global template -
normal. Do you wish to save those changes?" is an important warning. It
means that changes have been made, whether you intended to make changes or
not. You can also get it when your template has been altered by a poorly
written Add-In program or by a malicious virus. You should get this when you
make changes or any other program makes changes.
Getting this every time you close Word is annoying. While it is possible
to turn this prompt off, you do not want to do so. Turning this off is like
taking the batteries out of your smoke detector because it keeps buzzing!
The reason for the message being shown repeatedly is almost always a
poorly written Add-In.
Offenders have included the Norton AV Office Plug-In, MS Works Suite Add-In, EZ-Photo, Scansoft, Adobe
Acrobat, and Microsoft's own Word Redaction Add-In and MetaData remover. These all install Add-Ins that
mess with your normal.dot when they shouldn't do so and don't need to do so.
Some of these are .dot files, others are installed. See
How to find out whether any Word Add-ins have been installed for
instructions on seeing what Add-Ins you have. (Having Add-Ins is not a bad
thing. I run Word with 15 Add-Ins, most of which I wrote myself.)
Start with the Add-Ins I've noted. If you have any of them, decide whether
they are worth the annoyance they are causing you. Probably they are not.
Disable any that are not worth the candle. Restart Word and see if your
problem is gone.
If not...
If you start Word using
Start => Run: Winword.exe /a
you'll end up with Word out of the box loading without your saved normal.dot
file, with no macros and no Add-Ins. You may notice that it loads much more
quickly than you are used to seeing. When you close it, you won't get the "normal.dot"
prompt.
So, what you need to do is disable all of your Add-Ins (don't delete them).
Start by moving .dotm and .dot files out of your Word Startup folder, one-by-one, with
Word closed. Restart Word and see if that Add-In caused the problem. If not,
put it back in and take the next one out. (You can put them in a sub-folder
of your Startup folder.) If none of them are the problem, move to the .com
Add-Ins that have to be uninstalled.
If your offender is not on my list, please write back and let us know which
one caused your problems.
Write to the company that put out the Add-In with a complaint, and possibly
a bill for your time.
All of the above applies.
If you want Word to prompt you to save the changes to the Normal.dotm
template, (advised) follow these steps:
Click the Microsoft File Tab (2007 Office Button), and then click Word
Options. In the Advanced tab, click to select the Prompt before saving
Normal template check box in the Save group.
COM Add-Ins are handled under File > Options > Add-Ins > Go (button
to manage COM Add-Ins).
Note: You do want to have Word prompt
you about these changes.
This page last modified on
06 Apr 2022.
This page viewed
times since 15 April 2004.
