My previous thread question was too complicated so I have closed it and simplified my question as follows: -




Word insists on using normal.dotm template. Word ‘Help’ states “The Normal.dotm template opens whenever you start Microsoft Word, and it includes default styles and customizations that determine the basic look of a document.”

I do not use macros so how do I force Word to use normal.dotx when launched?

You don't. Normal.dotm is the default template for .docx and .docm documents alike.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

What Paul said.




Important points:

1. Only Word can create a normal.dotm template. If you try to make your own you will end up crippling Word.
2. You do not have to use macros. However, by not doing so, you are reducing what you can do with Word.
3. The normal template that Word builds contains no macros.

You can find more about the normal template and its functions here: Normal Template.



Why, other than that you do not use macros, do you want to avoid using the normal template that is a part of Word.

As Paul and Charles have explained, you can't avoid the Normal template in Word. You can customize its settings, if you wish (see http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/Custo...alTemplate.htm).

As an alternative to the Normal template, you can create a custom template with the formatting and content that you want.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

The attach document explains why.

Attached Files

Word Page Colour.docx (27.1 KB, 12 views)

So save the changes you made for your 'Normal.dotx' file to Word's 'Normal.dotm' template. Alternatively, save your 'Normal.dotx' template as a macro-enabled template (e.g. AbNormal.dotm), in:
then go to that folder, delete 'Normal.dotm' and rename 'AbNormal.dotm' as 'Normal.dotm'.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Have tried all these things. The problem seems to arise when putting the the words 'normal' and 'dotm' together. Even simply changing the dotx to dotm file extension causes the problem. So even if I have a normal.dotx template (which displays as I want it to) and change it to normal.dotm then the paper colour displays 'wrong' according to the Windows setting. It seems that normal.dotx obeys Windows but normal.dotm does not.

The issue has nothing to do with the extension. Simply changing it, however, is bound to cause problems quite unrelated to what you're trying to achieve.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Taking a normal.dotx template and saving it as normal.dotm will not work.

1. Word will not let you do this from within Word, for good reason.
2. If you do it from Windows, you will make Word work poorly. Only Word can create a fully-functioning normal.dotm file.

Rename your normal.dotx file to MyTemplate.dotx. Use that as the basis for your new documents that you want to have these characteristics.


If you want it to be the basis for all new documents, save it as MyTemplate.dotm and include code to make this happen. See Letterhead AddIn(s) - Default New Document for an example of how this can be done.

I have decided to use a work-around as follows : - I have created a normal.dotx template alongside the normal.dotm template and I have created a shortcut to normal.dotx on my desktop. Double-clicking this launches Word and shows the pale green 'paper' colour I want. Normal.dotx obeys Windows Registry setting but normal.dotm does not.

This works fine for new documents. Also documents created using this template continue to display correctly thereafter even though the document has the same docx extension as one created from the normal.dotm template. Weird!

Documents created previously by launching Word normally using the normal.dotm template still show as white 'paper' so this work-around doe not help in those cases.

I'll consider this thread closed now.

Thanks to all respondents.

I strongly urge you to name your custom template something other than "normal.dotx."



That name will lead to confusion, especially if you have display of filename extensions turned off (the default in new installations). "Mynormal.dotx" would work fine as a substitute.


For more on the Normal template, see my article on templates.


If you want existing documents to have the characteristics of your own template, the simplest method is to create new documents based on the template and paste the content from the old documents in the new ones, then save.

OK. Good point. I have changed it to Word.dotx and everything works fine now.


Thank you.