See Templates in Microsoft Word.

You have a number of misunderstandings of how the normal template works.

The normal template will supply:

• Styles
• Macros
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Toolbars
• AutoText
• Margins

to any new document started from File>New where another template is not specified. It is the base for the "blank document." It will supply everything except styles and margins to any document, new or existing. The normal template would share any text in the template as well except that you should not have any text (including headers or footers or page numbers) in the normal template.

A Global Template other than the normal template will do the same but will not supply styles unless special arrangements are made. A Global StyleSheet in Microsoft Word? A global template other than normal.dot will not supply margins or text (other than AutoText).

A document template will supply the same to any document created based on that template. If it has macros of the same name, or keyboard shortcuts using the same keys as macros and keyboard shortcuts in the normal template, the ones in the document template will control. The exact hierarchy of templates is is set forth in the first article. Document templates are expected to share text and often have preset language as well as headers/footers and page numbers.

Using a template to create new documents is far preferable to opening a document and using SaveAs. Probably the biggest reason is that it reduces the chance of overwriting your "template" document by accident.

So, do not create your new templates by opening the normal template and using SaveAs. Create them from documents unless there is something particular you want in your template that is already in another template. In that case, base the new template on an old one, but not normal.dot. Unless the new template has the same macros or keyboard shortcuts in them, those in the normal template will be fully operational.

Examples of templates that I base on other templates are my letter templates and my legal pleadings. Both have special macros that import parts from AutoText or from other documents so that a change in one place changes all like forms.