Those weird and wacky MS Word messages

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry

Word 97 which I've been using since 1998. I saved an unsaved document,
and got this message, which I've never seen before:

"Do you also want to save changes to the Document Template?"

How is it that, having saved documents a couple of million times before
in Word 97, I never got this message until now? And what the heck does
it mean? Just wondering
 
Just a bit more background:

The reason the prompt is available is that silently changing things in
the Normal.dot template is a favorite trick of macro viruses. You
should leave the option turned on at all times. If you get the prompt
and you don't know what changed, you should answer No and the changes
won't be saved.

There are a few problems with that scenario. For one thing, many users
have no idea what Normal.dot is, let alone what they might have done
during an editing session to change it. (Some examples are: adding or
modifying a style and checking the "Add to template" box in the
dialog; making a new AutoCorrect or AutoText entry; creating or
modifying a toolbar button or a keyboard shortcut; or changing a font
setting in the Format > Font dialog and clicking the Default button.)

Even if you're aware of the things that can change the template, you
may not remember everything you did during a long session.

Finally -- thankfully! -- the #$% hackers and script kiddies seem to
have found that it's easier or more satisfyingly destructive to make
"regular" viruses rather than macro viruses, so there are fewer macro
attacks than there used to be. Also, the major antivirus apps are
pretty good at spotting infected documents and quarantining them
before they can even be opened.

One other thing: if the document is based on a template other than
Normal.dot and you did something that changed that template (for
example, adding a custom toolbar), you'll be prompted to save the
template regardless of the setting of the option for Normal.dot. It's
just the same as the prompt you get if you edit a document and then
click Close without saving.
 
Lets say Normal.dot has a lot of changes from the original. How can one get
the Normal.dot back from it's original default setting when Word was first
installed? Using Word 2002(XP)...

Mark
 
Are you saying you want to return Normal.dot to its out-of-the-box default
condition? Easy. Just rename it and let Word create a new one. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Anne and Jay,

Sometimes I have the "prompt to save Normal" feature on, most of the
time not, but even if it's on that doesn't answer my question. I was
not closing Word, I was saving a document. Why should there be any
prompt regarding the saving of changes in the Normal template when I was
simply saving a document?

Moreover, the same thing just happened again now. I was saving an
unsaved document, and got the same prompt,

"Do you _also_ want to save changes to the Document Template?" (Note
that "also.")

Further, the "Prompt to save Normal template" feature is NOT checked
right now. Yet I got this weird prompt. What does saving a document
have to do with saving changes in Normal. It makes no sense.

Larry
 
Hi Larry,

Something we haven't nailed down yet: When you're working on the
document where this happens, is the document based on Normal.dot or on
some other template?

The reason I ask is that if it's Normal.dot that changed, you should
be seeing a message with different wording: "Changes have been made
that affect the global template, Normal. Do you want to save those
changes?" You can see this illustrated at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx.

The message you quoted is the one you get when the base of the
document is some *other* template, in which you've made some change
such as a modified style or a new autotext. The "prompt to save
Normal.dot" option has no effect on this message.
 
Jay, if this happens again I'll check and see if the document is
attached to a template other than Normal. I don't think it was, but I
could be wrong.

However, even if it was, it still wouldn't make sense. Again, I was not
closing the document, I was only saving it, so there was no reason for a
prompt to save changes in the document template.

Larry
 
When you save a document, you will get that prompt if you have made changes
to the template since the previous save (for example, by modifying a style
and checking the "Add to template" box).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
Suzanne, that was a promising lead, but it didn't pan out when I tested
it I attached a document to a template other than Normal, saved the
doc, made changes in the doc and didn't save them, then made changes in
the template and didn't save them, then went back to the doc and gave
the Save command. No message appeared.

Larry
 
I think it depends on the changes you make, and I'm not sure you went
through the exact process to prompt the message.

If you make a change in the document that will propagate back to the
template--for instance, changing a style and checking "add to template"--you
should get this message on saving the doc. I'm not sure there are any other
types of changes that could prompt it.

Whether you have gone into the template and made changes there should be
irrelevant.

Daiya
 
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