winword /a and normal.dot

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Hi friends

I just wanted to know the difference between starting Word with

1. winword /a
2. deleting normal.do

Which one is a better troubleshooting step

Thanks a lo
Regard
Gauta
 
winword /a starts Word without loading normal.dot or any add-ins. It is much
the better as a first diagnostic step: if the problem still appears, then
normal.dot is not your problem.

Deleting normal.dot also has an obvious downside: you lose any
customisations, macros, autotext entries, etc. (renaming it is simpler)
 
I would _never_ delete normal.dot as a troubleshooting step. It often
contains the family jewels. Renaming it something like normalold.dot will do
everything for troubleshooting that deleting it would, while preserving
anything you might have saved in your normal.dot if you need it.
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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Okay, Does deleting normal.dot delete any add-ins
Also, does uninstalling Word or reinstalling Word remove any add-ins installed
 
Thanks. I understand that deleting normal.dot could have a bad impact. However, I just wanted an answer to my previous post viz. will renaming normal.dot also disable add-ins. Also, if I uninstall / reinstall Word, will add-ins be lost? Also, will a new normal.dot be created upon uninstall / reinstall of Word

Thanks a lo
Regard
Gauta
 
Neither renaming Normal.dot nor reinstalling Word will affect the Registry
or add-ins, which, together with Normal.dot are the cause of many problems
in Word, especially starting or exiting. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.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.
 
Hi, Gautam,

1. Renaming normal.dot has no effect on any add-ins. Going back to
your original post, though, running "winword /a" starts Word without
loading normal.dot *and* without any add-ins. If you're
troubleshooting a problem that may be caused by either normal.dot or
an add-in, the /a switch won't tell you where the cause is -- just
that it is or isn't one of those.

2. If you uninstall/reinstall Word, you *may* remove some entries in
the registry that connect one or more add-ins to Word. Although those
add-ins won't function, they aren't exactly uninstalled, just
"unhooked". Other add-ins may survive intact. It depends on how they
connect to Word.

3. In most cases, uninstalling Word has no effect on normal.dot. This
is because the installer never uninstalls files that are newer than
the ones that it originally installed, and normal.dot gets updated
frequently. On the reinstall, the installer notices that normal.dot is
already in place, and doesn't overwrite it. This is "as designed", on
the assumption that anything that's newer than the original
installation contains information you want to keep.

This fact explains why there are dozens of posts in these newsgroups
daily, saying "I uninstalled and reinstalled, and it didn't help." It
almost never helps -- because it doesn't touch the cause of the
problem.

A new normal.dot will be created in exactly one circumstance: When you
start the Word program and there is no normal.dot file in existence.
This could be because (a) you renamed the old one, (b) you deleted the
old one, (c) you uninstalled Word before you made any customizations
that could be stored in normal.dot, or (d) you uninstalled Word and
then specifically deleted the contents of the Templates folder before
reinstalling.
 
Okay, Does deleting normal.dot delete any add-ins.
No.
Also, does uninstalling Word or reinstalling Word remove any add-ins
Click to expand...
installed.
No.

You remove Add-Ins by taking .dot files out of Word's startup folder and by
uninstalling .com Add-Ins.

Deleting normal.dot deletes any macros stored in normal.dot, any keyboard
customizations stored in normal.dot, and AutoText stored in normal.dot, any
AutoCorrect entries stored in normal.dot and any styles stored in
normal.dot.

--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.
 
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