I recorded some macros in Word, in “All Documents (Normal.dotm)", but they are not being saved across new sessions.



Normal.dotm is located in C:\Users\myname\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I'm running Windows7, a new OS from XP, and Office 10, a new install on the new machine.

As a test I enabled Word Options, Advanced, Save, "Prompt before saving Normal template" ... but am not prompted after creating a macro as described above, then closing word





Thanks in advance.

This suggests that an add-in is preventing the Normal template from saving. You have to troubleshoot for add-ins separately.

As a workaround, though, you should open Normal as a document and record the macro directly in the file. Then save it manually.

To open the template, you can do the following: From within Word, press Alt+F11 and then Ctrl+G, to activate the Immediate window in the Visual Basic Editor. Type

NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

and press Enter. Normal opens in a separate window and you should now close the Visual Basic Editor.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Stefan,
Your work around did seem to get the macro into a persistent file. However it automatically showed, some typing I did as a test, whenever I open a new document. Not what I wanted.

I guess I will try to tinker with the Add-Ins.

Just open the Normal template again and delete any content you (accidentally) added to the file. Save and close.

Note that you don't have to use a macro to open Normal; it's just that it makes the task a bit easier, since you don't have to locate the file on your system.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Yes, I was running the macro "in" Normal.dotm and it is a text editing macro that is intended to insert text into the document ... so I needed to do what I did. I just needed to "clean" the document after I had what I needed. Workaround not as good as how base product is supposed to function.

What I really needed was to be able to save macros in Normal.dotm while I am editing some target document.

Solution: I "disabled" all "Action" type Add-Ins, they seemed to be innocuous, and there after recording macros in Normal.dotm worked !

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the follow-up.

Your description illustrates that you should troubleshoot for the add-in which is causing Normal not to save correctly. See the Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541/en-us.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I was wrong in my solution. Add-ins had nothing to do with saving a macro in Normal.dotm. Saving the macro didn't work when I tried again.

So, I re-activated the previously deactivated Add-ins.

I didn't realize the effect that occurred, that additionally I had gone into VBA editor and clicked the save to disk icon after I had recorded the macro. This is what really did the savings. This sounds like a bug to me. p.s. the associated key board command short cut was not saved.

Hope someone else can benefit from my trials.

Well, the file containing the recorded macro must always be saved; there is nothing strange about that.

By default, Word saves modifications to the Normal template without asking you first. To ensure that you see a prompt, select "Prompt to save Normal template" at Tools | Options | Save.

As you have noticed, you can save manually by clicking the Save icon in the Visual Basic Editor.

However, it's important to figure out why other ways of saving isn't working properly. Troubleshooting add-ins is an important part of that.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Until you figure out which Add-In is causing the problem, one other thing you can do is record your macros as usual (in documents other than the Normal template) saving them in the Normal template. Then open and save the normal template itself before ending the Word session.

Normal Template in Microsoft Word - How to Find or Open the Normal Template