![]() One of the greatest unanswered questions of all time will inevitably go down in history as: “Why did Microsoft change the normal.dot template of MS Word to Calibri 11 with extra spacing and multiple lines?” The question following that will be: “Who on this planet actually enjoys using this style?” My speculations and further comments on the matter cannot be written in a public venue. So, what is the normal.dot or normal.dotm? This is the “blank” document on which all new MS Word documents are based. If you work at a larger office or corporation, chances are your IT staff have already rectified this ghastly situation for you. If you are a solo practitioner or in a small office, you are perhaps still struggling with the aforementioned unwieldly style. Here is the quick solution. In 2013, open the Run dialog on your computer (press Windows Logo + R or click Start Button> Run). Type%appdata% Microsoft Templates into the text region and press. Windows explorer will open the template directory. Right click the Normal.dotm file, and choose Open from the context menu. In 2007 & 2010, 0pen MS Word. ![]() In 2007, click on the Office Button in the upper left corner of your screen. Click on Open. Under Microsoft Office Word there will be a folder labelled Templates. Click Templates and then double click the Normal.dotm file. This should open the MS Word 2007 template. In 2010, click File> Open. Under Microsoft Word there will be a folder labelled Templates. Click Templates and then double click the Normal.dotm file. This should open the MS Word 2010 template. [click image for larger view] Press on the keyboard to select everything (even though there is nothing but one blank line there). Now you are free to change the Font (perhaps to Times New Roman), and Font Size (perhaps to 12). Most importantly, click on Paragraph (the region highlighted in the screenshot below with a red box) and edit the spacing according to your personal preferences (likely what is displayed in the screenshot below). [click image for larger view] Save the document template with your changes. All future documents created will carry the formatting style you previously set in the template. I encountered a similar problem. I believe the difficulty is that you are not storing the changes to the “real” Normal template. In my case I had difficulty finding the real Normal template, and I tried following suggestions that were left on this forum. They pretty much did not work – changes would hold until I re-booted the computer, and then they would disappear. Instead of following the suggestions that had been posted here, I found a work-around for locating the Normal template – sorry, I can’t recall what it was – it may have been something like using the template manager, or examining the properties of the Normal template to find its file path. In any event, I was able to make permanent changes to fonts, etc. You may want to give further consideration to the idea of adding photos and text to the Normal template. Once you do that, the additions appear in everything. In most cases you would be better off to make the changes you want for fonts, etc. In the Normal template, and then create a new template with a different name to use when you need the one with photos and text. For example, I have a letterhead template that is based on Normal – it includes a stylized header, etc., so it applies to all letters, but that header is not in the Normal template so it doesn’t apply to other documents. ![]() 880 related questions. When you quit Word, you may be prompted to always save the changes to your global template, Normal.dot. Or Normal.dotm First, you can turn off the. Microsoft Word; On the Save tab, click to clear the Prompt to save Normal template check box. Options dialog box. If you use Microsoft Office Word 2007. Thanks for the reply. Only reason I wanted to do this is because I have about 800 pages with section breaks in it and everywhere it starts a new section break I need it to create its own document. I have a macro to do that but it loses my headings when it creates the new document so I thought I would be smarter than the computer (haha) and add the header to the normal.dotm. I am waiting for my IT dept. To call me back and make sure I am updating normal in the correct spot. OR If I could get that macro to use a template like you suggested – that would work – I am not VBA trained though so I am not sure how to write the code to do that. ![]() Windows 7 doesn’t come with office pre-installed, so it would be the version of office you are using that matters – HOWEVER, IF all you wish to do is change the default settings for the normal style then you can modify the STYLES and set the normal style to whatever you want – tell it that the changes should apply to the template and you should be done. Similarly, if you wish to change the page layout for margins and paper size etc, you can do this by using the “format page” option and ensuring you “set as Default” for your changes. For Spanish versions of Word, select all with Ctrl+E. Do NOT try to find the logic in this change. It might damage you. Spaniards are very fond of translating everything – might be some kind of compensating mechanism. My native language is Spanish too, but I’m Argentine and we don’t have any problem absorbing all kinds of Anglicisms, be them technical or not. Thanks for the article. I did know how to do it but I’m too tired to think about this, while I’m trying to fix an Active Directory which collapses every time they try to create a new account (no more RIDs available) and trying to setup a secondary VM to migrate a snapshot of another one with a disk of 120GB holding an Exchange Server, with only 4GB to spare. All of this two weeks before our 12 year-old (three terms) ruling administration hands over government to the newly elected opposition (I voted for the latter) and are going into scorched-earth mode. Did I say I work in a government facility? SO, thinking about how to change the normal template? No the first priority at the moment! Thanks again! Just now, I opened my paper manuscript file (in Word 2013 version), and the blue pop-up window started to load this Word file but it hung for a long time without opening the file successfully. Then I double-clicked this file again, and it was opened fine. That pop-up window was still loading at that time. Then I closed the file which was opened at the second time and logged off my computer. However, when I tried to open this file again, I was told that the Normal.dotm file was damaged and the computer will delete it and create a new Normal.dotm file. Then everything seems OK. I am still worried that whether this accident will affect my paper manuscript file or not (like the customized styles, content, or figure quality). Using Word 2010 (64-bit) under Windows 7 (64-bit): (I’m using Compatibilty Mode for Word 2003 – but that’s probably not relevant.) Click on the Change Styles tab on the right. Click on Paragraph Spacing. Click on Custom Paragraph Spacing. Change whatever you want (I changed it to Arial 12). Mark (check) New Documents based on this template (at the bottom). (First prompt: Do you want to save changes you made to Document1? Don’t save.) Second prompt: Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dotm. Do you want to save these changes? That worked for me! Have been trying to change the background color for hours now in MSWord 10, looking up anything and everything. I open the normal.dotm file, hit Ctl-a make the page color changes in page layout (no option to set as default), so choose page setup and hit save as default. In the Options, have gone to Advanced and checked off Show Background Colors have come out of it, saving it as Doc1 etc, didn’t work, then came out using Ctrl-S, didn’t save first time, and second popup said to save Global Template, said yes. But every time I open it again, get the same white background. I must be missing something but can’t see it. Any help would be hugely appreciated! Diwatz, I’ve never posted before but I’ve tried this and it worked for me. Open a Word document – go to ‘page layout’. Under ‘page background’ choose ‘page colour’ and choose whatever colour you wish to use (you can change margins, fonts, etc now too) – now save this as a template – click ‘file’ and ‘save as’. Choose an existing folder or create a new folder to save in. Under ‘filename’ put name of template. Under ‘save as type’ hit the arrow on the right, scroll down and choose ‘Word template’ – ‘save’. For easy access to this template, go to the folder where you’ve saved the template, right click, copy. Go to Word, ‘file’ and ‘new’. Choose ‘my templates’ tab at top – open and paste your template into it. This is like your own little personal filing cabinet where you can easily access all the templates you’ve customised for yourself. Good luck and hope it works for you! Hi this doesn’t seem to work any more. To explain: when you adjust the normal.dot document it then asks you where you want to save it (it insists on making you do ‘save as’) but then you have no idea where to save it to When you go to find the system folder that you opened it from, through the save as dialog box, it’s impossible to find because it doesn’t show you same files as it does in the location you opened the normal.dot in It’s all very confusing. Why Microsoft has made it this absurdly difficult to have to go around to the back end of the system to change the default settings remains an absolute mystery especially given it’s the 2010 edition. But we all appreciate you didn’t create this problem you’re kind enough to offer us all a solution to it, that I’ve used before, but which does not now seem to still work in the same way. In case you’re able / wish to replicate the problem to see if you have any idea how to work around it. Thanks either way. Speakeasy Solutions Inc., in our 17th year of business, provides complete speech recognition, digital voice dictation and transcription solutions. We offer products, consultation, setup, training, customization, and support services to clients within Canada. We are dedicated to providing you with personal, professional, and honest service. We focus on your particular needs above all else — providing you with a premium customized solution. Learn more, and who our clients are. Speakeasy Solutions Inc., of Vancouver, BC, provides products & services across Canada. Whenever I exit Word 2013, even if I have not opened any documents, I first get an error 'The file is in use by another application or user. (C: users David AppData. Normal.dotm)' followed by 'Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dotm. Do you want to save those changes?' (PDF of screenshots attached) I can click through these, but it is annoying, especially as Windows will not shut down without dealing with it. I haven't found any support docs dealing with this in Word 2013. Per instructions for some earlier versions, I checked in Options/Advanced under the Save area and 'prompt before saving Normal template' is not checked (as was suggested). There is though an 'i' in a circle after that line. Other steps suggested in the earlier version support docs suggest deleting Add-ins and Macros, but this is a new clean installation and I don't think I have any of either of those. You DO want prompt before saving Normal template checked. This is an alarm that a change has been made to your normal template. Turning off a smoke detector because it keeps going off is not a good idea. Better to look for the source of the smoke. And yes, you can turn it off while you are looking! The first time you start Word on a new installation, it creates a normal.dotm file. This can generate that message, as well, when you close Word. You almost certainly have Add-Ins. Look under the and look under both Add-Ins buttons. If, as I suspect, there are Add-Ins, disable any having to do with bluetooth. Does that fix this problem? This deals with the 'changes have been made' message. The first message 'already in use' may have to do with file permissions for the user templates folder. The default location for that folder is as a subfolder of your User Documents folder. It would be named 'Custom Office Templates.' With Word closed, look in that folder for a file named: ~$Normal.dotm The '~$' at the beginning of this filename indicates that it is a Windows 'locking file' to prevent multiple users from accessing a file at one time. These are sometimes orphaned or left behind by an unexpected shutdown. Delete that file. Write if these steps did not eliminate the problem (or if it did, for that matter). Thanks Charles. There was indeed an Add In to do with Bluetooth. I wouldn't have found it without the link you posted that clued me into the Developer tab (and the fact that that tab needed to be turned). I think deleting that Add In did the trick. I get your analogy about the smoke detector and normal.dotm notifications. I mentioned turning it off because that's what the MS help sites suggest doing when having the problem I was having. Thanks again. DavidYou are welcome. I do not know why they suggest this, but know that they do. It may be that they do not trust users to actually dig through the Add-Ins or that they are lazy. I do not know why they suggest this, but know that they do. It may be that they do not trust users to actually dig through the Add-Ins or that they are lazy.I suspect that there are two factors involved: (a) There is an option to turn off the notifications, and that option needs to be documented. (b) The writer didn't understand why it's important to know when changes to Normal.dotm are about to be saved. The notification was initially created because it could serve as a warning that a malicious macro (sometimes called a 'virus', although such macros wouldn't generally be self-propagating) is at work. For a number of reasons, that sort of macro has become rare, at least compared to other kinds of malware. But the notification is still useful to warn of badly written add-ins and unintentional changes to the template's styles and other bits. If it were up to me, the option to turn off the notification would be removed. The unfortunate part is that Word gives no indication of what in Normal.dotm is changed. The MVPs have often requested the ability to report the nature of the changes -- was a macro added, was a style modified, was text added, are there new building blocks or AutoCorrect entries, etc.? So far the suggestions have been ignored. I also have the 'Changes have been made.' Message every time I exit Word 2013. I'm running on a brand new ThinkPad with newly installed Office 365 Home Premium. I made the Developer Tab visible (right click on Ribbon, Customize), and I had the Intel Bluetooth add-in. I could disable (uncheck) the add-in, but when I tried to Remove the add-in I got a message that it can '.only be connected or disconnected by an Administrator.' I am, of course, running as an admin. I was able to find WINWORD.EXE and run it as an administrator. This allowed me to remove the Bluetooth connector, but I'm still getting the message every time I exit Word. I have disabled e-mail protection in Norton 360. I have scanned the entire system with Malwarebytes. The folder C: Users Chuck AppData Roaming Microsoft Word STAR TUP is empty. Do you have any additional suggestions on how to get rid of the message? Newly installed Office 365 Home Premium. I made the Developer Tab visible (right click on Ribbon, Customize), and I had the Intel Bluetooth add-in. The folder C: Users Chuck AppData Roaming Microsoft Word STAR TUP is empty. Do you have any additional suggestions on how to get rid of the message? Thanks!Few people responding on New Year's Day here. There are two buttons on the Developer Tab for Add-Ins, you need to check both. The Word is one place an automatically-loading Add-In can be stored, but not the only place. I kept fiddling/Googling and found *a* solution. Not sure if it's *the* solution. I ran the Microsoft Fixit for Word (). The only change I made was to restore the default Normal template. That cleared up the problem. It will be interesting to see if the problem reappears, especially since I plan to make some personalizations to the Normal template.This fixed the problem for me. I strongly recommend anyone who is having this problem to run this first. It was a damned Word add-ins by some company called My Web Search. I deactivated all add-ins, and that fixed the problem. I only wasted three days trying to fix it. Whoever wrote that add-in should die of Gonorrhea and then burn in hell. This fixed the problem for me. I strongly recommend anyone who is having this problem to run this first. It was a damned Word add-ins by some company called My Web Search. I deactivated all add-ins, and that fixed the problem. I only wasted three days trying to fix it. Whoever wrote that add-in should die of Gonorrhea and then burn in hell. My Web Search sounds like a phishing tool. This is a suspicion, not something I know. Most Add-Ins are with a good purpose. Look at any others you have and see whether they do something you want. The first time you start Word on a new installation, it creates a normal.dotm file. This can generate that message, as well, when you close Word. You almost certainly have Add-Ins. Look under the and look under both Add-Ins buttons. If, as I suspect, there are Add-Ins, disable any having to do with bluetooth. Does that fix this problem? This deals with the 'changes have been made' message. Write if these steps did not eliminate the problem (or if it did, for that matter).That worked for me - I didn't need to delete the Add-In - Just disable it. Thanks for an easy to follow, accurate reply.
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