Hi,

Regrettably I'm not technically minded, and need help with this. I bought a new computer with Win7 as the OS and Microsoft Office 2010. My old computer system was XP and Word 2003.



I have been trying to find a way of transferring my macros and auto text entries from the old computer to the new but without success. I "googled" it but the answers were far too technical for me.

I wonder if anyone on the forum knows an easy way?

Thanks in advance.

On your old computer, find Normal.dot (which is the default save location for both macros and AutoText entries in Word 97-2003). Make a renamed copy and put it in Word's Startup folder on your new machine. (By default, the Startup folder for Word 2010 on Windows 7 is C:\Users\your_user_name_here\AppData\Roaming\Micro soft\Word\Startup.)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Many thanks, Stefan. I'll try that now.

Regards,

Ron

In windows XP go to My Computer/Control Panel. Then click on Folder Options. Then click on View and select "Show hidden files & folder".

Then go to C:\Documents & Settings\your_user_name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. There you will find the normal file along with any other templates.

I would just copy them all and paste them into the corresponding folder in Word 2010. I'm not sure why you were told to rename the normal file or to put it in a startup folder. Maybe Word 2010 does not have the same directories that Word 2003 does. But in word 2003, it will only recognize the normal.dot file as the default template which includes your macros. If you rename it to something as normal.old, word will not recognize it--at least it won't in Word 2003.

Word 2003 and 2010 use different file structures. You do not want to use a Word 2003 normal.dot as a Word 2010 normal.dotm. It will cause problems.

You rename the normal.dot to avoid confusion. A good name would be normal2003.dot. If it is placed in the Word Startup Folder all AutoText and macros in it will be available to every document.

To original poster: You may want to use Greg Maxey's building blocks utility to move the AutoText from your old normal.dot to your new normal.dotm. That way you will be able to use the pop-up tool-tips for the AutoText. Building Blocks & AutoText
I know that this isn't the simplicity you asked for. The first instructions you got from Stefan are the best simple instructions you are likely to find.

I think it's a good idea to make a copy of the normal.dot file or whatever its equivalent is in word 2010. Mine got corrupted somehow, and I had to redo the macros. If it ever goes bad, just delete it out of there and pop in the copied file in its place. Would that work?

Making a backup of Normal is always a good idea. But you can't replace Normal.dotm in Word 2007/2010 with Normal.dot of older versions.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

A backup of your customizations is a very good idea. They are not all stored in normal.dot, though! Here is a list for Word 2007 & 2010: https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/...locations.html
For Word 2003 see What Files Do I Need to Backup? (or where does Word store all my customizations?) by Dave Rado, MVP and Brenda Hutton

You can also store your macros and many customizations in a different global template so you don't have to worry about normal.dot having to be reset. This is also a better way to share customizations with others. You would want a backup of that file.

Again, you can't transfer the normal.dot file directly from Word 2003 to a later version. You can use it, you just can't use it to replace normal.dotm.

Thanks for that link. I actually found that doing a Google search. I did go to Tools\Options\Save and check the box to prompt to save the normal.dot file. I think all my templates though are in App Data\Microsoft\templates. Here's the folder. I don't know of any other templates I have. The macros were the most work, and I believe they are in the normal.dot file. I do have a couple of letter templates, but they are stored in the same place as all my letter files. The template was not saved as a template either. I just make a macro to open the template (file) and insert the date automatically. I guess I did that wrong huh? It can get pretty confusing. I set the template (regular file) to promp for read only though. Then there is a global template. I only use style sheets on certain documents. I'm a rookie, and home use is all I need. If I worked in an office doing this all day long, I would learn much more about it. Apologies for hijacking the thread.



Thanks for the assistance.

If you are using Word more than 6 hours a month you owe it to yourself to learn to use Styles in Word. Within two months you will more than have recovered any time you spend learning them. If you use Word more than that the savings are much more dramatic. See Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word, Tips for Understanding Styles in Word and Yet Another "Use Styles" Verbal Beating!

Save your letterhead as a template in your templates folder. Put the date in using a CreateDate field. When you use it for a new letter, the new date will automatically be inserted and it will stay that date in your saved letter.
Templates in Microsoft Word
Using Date Fields in Microsoft Word

Thanks Charles. I know it would do me a world of good to read those articles.