I moved both desktop and laptop to Windows 10 just before the end-July deadline (was on Windows 7). Made very sure all drivers were correct. All has worked okay.



MS Word froze a couple of times on the desktop. Well, I was doing complicated things. It's happened before.

Then, recently, Word froze again. On recovery I was asked if I wanted to save changes to the template. Having just added autocorrect items and maybe an autotext, I said yes.

There was a message at some stage, saying Word could not find a file called 'building blocks' (was it 'BuildingBlocks.doc' or something?). Clicked through that.

Now, my autotexts are all there -- but when I tried to use a macro a message came saying to change the security settings. I went to the Trust Center to check. It looked okay but just to be sure I enabled all macros.

Tried using my macro again. Still no dice.

Tried the Developer->Macros command. No macros were there.

Went to a document file saved a few days back. No macros there.

Went to Users\MyName\Documents\Custom Office template. Found no normal.dotx. There was a normal.docx, so loaded that -- no macros.

Found a normal.dotx stored away elsewhere a while back. Opened it -- no macros.

Went to Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. Found a normal.dotm file. Opened it -- no macros.

All macros are somehow completely absent or inaccessible on the desktop. Arrgghh...!

On the laptop, everything is okay. But the autocorrect and autotext items are a few months out of date. So I'm not keen just to copy the normal file(s) across.

So I'm thinking to copy the macros into a text file and insert them manually into the relevant template on the desktop -- presumably the .dotm file that's in AppData\Roaming. Should work.

Still, it's scary flying blind. It would be good to know what is happening here.

Any input most welcome. Thanks!

Macros are stored in macro enabled templates, in particular the normal template which is normal.dotm

If you have not changed the default location enter or copy
%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates
to the address window of Windows Explorer and you will be taken to the folder that should contain the default template.

If Word cannot find the default template it creates a new one, and the update to Windows 10 will undoubtedly have replaced the normal template with a new one which will have been saved at the prompt.

The original template (the one with your macros) should have been saved as NormalPre.dotm, and you may well find that in the same folder, in which case copy it to a safe location and rename it to normal.dotm after having deleted the new normal.dotm from the folder.

Start Word - open the renamed normal dotm template and file > saveas and save with the same name and location.

__________________
Graham Mayor - MS MVP (Word) (2002-2019)
Visit my web site for more programming tips and ready made processes www.gmayor.com

Thanks, Graham

The %appdata% paste took me to Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, where I was before. No sign there of NormalPre.dotm.

(I can see a NormalEmail15Pre.dotm. But that dates back some years).

Went to the Root Directory of the Operating System drive and put NormalPre.dotm into the search box on File Explorer. No items match.

It's a bit of a puzzle, too, how the switch to Windows 10 could have caused this. For two weeks now, I've been using the Windows-10 system extensively (including MS Word) with no problems.

[Incidentally, this wasn't a clean-install of Windows 10. It was one of those 'keep-all-your-files-unaltered' installations.]

Anyhow, I went to the last big backup I made, less than a month ago. Plugged in the external drive, went to the Appdata\Roaming... address and found the normal.dotm file I'd saved. Making sure nothing was already open in Word, I clicked on that normal.dotm.

But there are no macros. That seems weird. At the time that backup was made, everything was working fine, so presumably the dotm file must have been saved with all macros present and correct.

It almost seems as if the problem might not be in the dotm file but might instead be in the Word application that is opening it. Would that be possible?

Anyhow, I'm back to wondering. Do I take the normal.dotm from the laptop and replace the existing macro-less normal.dotm with it? Or, do I open the new, macro-less normal.dotm, get into an appropriate VBA window and copy the macro code in from the various text files I've made from the laptop?

Am inclined to do the second... But don't know enough to judge. Wondering all sorts of things, e.g.
(0) How can all the macros suddenly disappear. Ought I to start keeping regular text-file backups of the macro code...?
(1) Can I check what may have happened with the Building Blocks?
(2) I was thinking also to look at the custom dictionary file, but can't find it.
(3) Most of the templates seem to be duplicated, being found both in Users\MyName\Documents\Custom Office Templates and in Users\MyName\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates -- does the first of those addresses just function as a pointer?
...
(n)...

Okay, most grateful for any advice you may have. Many thanks.

Geoff (is my name)

Copying the text files from the laptop to the desktop will work. Even easier is to right click on each module on your laptop and export to .bas files. Then import from those files on your desktop.

Keeping backups is always a good idea.

You can check but like macros, building blocks are saved in templates.
Where can Building Blocks be stored?


Mastering the Spelling Checker
These are not duplicates. There should be no normal.dotm (or normal.[anything] in your custom office templates, that is for templates you have created.

See Word 2007 & Later Key Data File Locations for things you may want to back up.

Thanks for the tips and links. I'm learning.

For what it's worth, I've used Word since the 1980s -- but never has anything happened like what's been happening since installation of Windows 10. It's been agony!

Last night, again Word froze. On reopening, again the macros had disappeared. This time I was able to restore them, thankfully. But then I discovered that ALL the keyboard shortcuts had suddenly vanished.

(Oh, dear. I've got work to do and am getting a wee bit panicked....)

Is there some way to do with the keyboard shortcuts what I've been able to do with the macros? That is, can I go to the working version of Word on the laptop, back up the keyboard shortcuts there, and then restore them to the desktop?

Or if not, what other approach might be worth trying?

Incidentally, suppose I were to by Office 2016. How good a chance would there be that this sort of problem would stop happening, do you think?

Thanks again for the help. I'm miles away in the countryside at the moment, so your input is a real lifeline...

Think about the fun you've been having with Windows 10.

IMHO, Word 2016 is still in early beta stage. It will not make this situation better. When I upgraded a computer from Windows 8.1 to 10 there was a period where I temporarily lost (a couple of days) access to my Word customizations. Keep backups. Look at the link I gave you earlier on key data files.

If you are using the 32-bit version of Office, Chris Woodman's shortcut organizer should work for you. Move your shortcuts to a Global Template on your desktop.

Chris Woodman's Keyboard Shortcut Organizer

I do not store any macros I use for work in my Normal template. I store them in separate templates, usually global templates. You can put related keyboard shortcuts and / or QAT modifications as well as custom building blocks in the same templates.