This is the consensus among the experienced Word users I know.

The normal template is intended to act as a sort of personal scratch pad and place for the user to make changes to their experience of Word. Anything that could be shared by sharing Word can be shared in other ways, primarily Global Templates. Formatting for particular documents or types of documents is best shared through Workgroup Templates.

Finally, the normal template is the first place trouble shooters go when there is a problem with Word. The inexperienced ones tell users to delete it; the experienced ones to rename it.

On a single computer, if the normal template is shared between different versions of Word at least one of them will be in "compatibility mode" all the time and not have access to full features.

Here is a smattering of what I came up with in Google searching:
normal template Word share

• Set up Word so it works effectively for your team
• Microsoft Support
• Distributing Macros to Other Users
• http://stealthpuppy.com/you-cannot-s...users-in-word/