Something strange is going on. I have been getting strange messages about saving changes to Normal.dotm when ever I close a document. I always say no, but sometimes I have to go through a number of dialog boxes to exit the file. Now my Normal.dotm is not working properly. It does not create new documents with my styles or macros.

I configured Normal.dotm with a default page containing a heading, footer, page number, date, etc. It also contains many macros that I created. Now, when I start Word, the template creates a new document but with a blank sheet and no macros. The same happens if I double-click Normal.dotm. However, If I "open" Normal.dotm, the default sheet is present with all the macros.

To create a new document, I have to go through a convoluted routine: open Normal.dotm, and then use save-as to create the document.



How can I fix this? I have tried creating a new Normal.dotm and copying styles and macros into it. But the problem persists.

I am using Word 2016, on a Windows 10 pc.

Since you're opening Normal.dotm for editing, it's unsurprising that Word is prompting you to save changes, especially if it contains a DATE field.

As for documents created from Normal.dotm not containing macros, that is perfectly normal. Documents created from a template have access to the template's macros but don't contain them.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

No, when Normal.dotm creates a new document, the document has the macros. You don't have to import them.

No, I'm not opening Normal.dotm for editing. I have to resort to opening it just to create new documents which have the stiles and macros. As I mentioned, I have go go through a convoluted process.

I wonder if reloading Office will solve the problem?

That simply is NOT true. A new document created from Normal.dotm is a docx file and docx files cannot contain macros. Even if you saved the document in the docm format, it still would not contain the template's macros. That is how Word works.
If you're opening it at all, you're opening it for editing.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

When you create a new document based on a template with macros (including on the normal.dotm template) that document has access to the macros contained in the template, so long as it remains attached to the template. In addition, any macros saved in the normal.dotm template will be available whether or not that is the attached template. None of these macros are stored or kept in the document, itself.

You are opening it for editing if you are doing what you say.

It is a very bad idea to have any text in your normal.dotm template. That includes headers/footers/date/page fields. Use a regular custom document template for this. If necessary, you can make that custom template the default template for new documents. See Letterhead AddIn(s) - Default New Document for examples of how.

About 25 years ago, I came up with the same bright idea of modifying the normal template to be a document template for the kind of document I used the most. Like you, I ran into trouble. Like you, I looked for help. I was told to not put any text into the normal template. I am passing that forward. (Since then, I've seen some of the other problems that can be caused by doing this.)

Thanks, I see your point. So the problem I am having is that the macros in Normal.dotm are not available in the documents it creates, although Normal.dotm is stored in the Templates folder. Is there a way to fix this?

Macros in in Normal.dotm are available in the documents it creates; they're just not stored in those documents - they remain in the template. That is how templates and documents work. This will likely only be an issue if you move the document to a location from which it cannot access its template (e.g. you email it to someone outside your system's network).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Macros stored in the normal.dotm file are available in all Word documents on that system, whether or not the normal template is the attached template.

What is it that you want to fix?

Note that saving any file, other than one created by Word, as the normal template will cause problems. You can open and edit that file created by Word, you cannot replace it with one that you create on your own.

I created a template (dotm) and stored it in the Startup folder, but it does not load. I double checked to make sure that the folder is trusted. Is there something else I have to do?

How do you know that it is not loaded? Did you look in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog?

How do you know that it is in the Word Startup Folder?
(Most computers have several folders labelled "Startup" only one of which will be the Word Startup Folder.)

Earlier I asked you what it is that you want to fix. Do you care to answer that question?

Are you trying to do something like Letterhead AddIn(s) - Default New Document?

By not loaded I mean the page is blank when I start Word. The custom page I created in the Startup folder template does not appear. Only a blank page appears. I know it's in the Startup Folder because I first checked it's location in Options/Advanced/File Locations. Yes, I'm trying to do something like Letterhead AddIn(s)-Default New Document. I'm not sure what your earlier question was.

My earlier question remains: what is it you want to fix?

Look at the Add-In I gave you! Try it out. It gives you two options using a single template or using two.

Put the one in the package that has "Add-In" as part of the name in your startup folder if you want and change it to what you want. Otherwise, you need to set up your template to work the way the Add-In works.
It is fairly well documented. Click on the question mark in the QAT.

The one labeled StartLetter.dotm is an alternative that requires a separate template called Letterhead.dotm in the Letters & Faxes folder of your Workgroup Templates folder. The StartLetter.dotm file is its own documentation.

Without further work, a template in the Startup Folder is loaded as a global template. Yours is "loaded." It takes macros in the template to make it become the default basis for new documents. When a template is loaded as an Add-In, it becomes a secondary global template. It is not the Attached template for the open document absent special code. One example of such code is in the sample Add-Ins, another example can be found at A Global StyleSheet in Microsoft Word?

Under the Developer Tab, you can see the button for Document Template. That opens the legacy Templates and Add-Ins dialog. In that dialog, you can see which template is the attached template for the active document as well as any loaded template Add-Ins (global templates). That dialog is the easiest way to see if a template has been loaded on your system.

Attaching a different template does not change any document content directly. The way to get layout and text from a template into a document is generally to create a new document based on the template, not to attach it to an existing document.

The sample Add-Ins are designed to create new documents based on a specified template other than the normal template.

I added more documentation to the Letterhead AddIn(s) - Default New Document files this morning. You would start with the text file.

I've temporarily attached it here.

Attached Files

LetterheadAddin.zip (129.1 KB, 8 views)