Managing Normal.dot over a network

[MAFinOKC]

I work in a large hospital complex. I visit the hospital floors every day. My office computer and the hospital computers are running Win XP Pro and Office 2003. Most of the staff-access computers on the hospital floors are now totally locked down using single-sign-on. They provide access to server-based Office apps, so if you need to use one, you connect to the server over a Citrix connection. They provide access to your network share so that you can save documents to your personal space. Customized settings, e.g. changes I make in the global template Normal.dot (I'm guessing that's what I'm modifying), are periodically purged and the template is reset to the basic default template. Is there a way to have a template stored somewhere on my computer or network share that I can access to restore all my personal settings? I have looked at the Template and Add-ins function in Microsoft Word, but I can't find any good explanation of how to do what I want to do. Any suggestions?

[AnnieMS]

Warning: I am a newbie - well more of a newbie/oldie but not anywhere near an expert. I was searching the forum looking for help regarding global templates/normal.dot/organizer 'cause Word help isn't much help and was disappointed there were no replies to your post. Well, this is a busy time of year.

If I understand your situation [i don't know what a Citrix connection is] the Word exe runs on the server and not your computer and you save your documents to a server? So I'm guessing a Citrix connection works similar to a terminal session [only read about it, never used one].

Some Word customization is saved in normal.dot, some in folders [like the templates you create] and some in registry keys [changes to toolbars]. I've never read about or found on my computer any Word configuration ini-type files, so as far as I know it's normal.dot & registry.

I don't have any idea how Word would be configured to be used by multiple users on a server. If users can't set up Word to fit their work habits most of the advantages of using Word would be nullified, so one would expect configuration to allow some customization. Word may also have been configured to prevent some customizations for security reasons - like only approved macros being allowed. [that would kill me, my toolbars are full of macros I recorded and I use them constantly]

Does your personal space on the server only have folders for documents created? No Folders for User Templates\Auto Recovery Files\Startup? If you had a Templates folder in your personal space I'd expect your normal.dot would be saved there and it wouldn't be resetting to default. You could create a Template folder in your space but to modify the path for User Templates in Tools > Options > File Locations you'd have to have traverse permission [i think] to go through the directory from wherever the folder is that normal.dot is in to your personal space folder [if they are even on the same server] and you'd have to know where your personal space was. I don't know where Word's path settings are saved. I wouldn't think the path to normal.dot would be saved in normal.dot so I'm thinking it's saved in the registry.

If each user of Word have their own registry key in the server's registry and that's where path settings are saved then an IT person should be able to set it up so that when you opened Word it would load normal.dot from your personal space. If that were so, I'd expect you to already have your own Templates folder somewhere and your normal.dot to be in it, but you may have your own registry key which could be configured from a current common default path to your personal space if an IT would be so kind. If the path settings are saved in a common users registry key, then that wouldn't work. And if everyone has to use the same normal.dot and there are no individual user Word registry settings - well I take the 5th on my opinion on that.

I put a copy of normal.dot in My Documents and opened Word by opening the normal.dot - to see if you could save a normal. dot in your space and open it & Word from there. I had double some toolbar buttons, so Word didn't approve of that method. When I opened Word by opening normal.dot in its template folder my toolbars looked normal. Then I changed the User Template path to My Documents and it opened normally from there, so having the User Template path set to where normal.dot is seems necessary, even if you open normal.dot "manually". I don't know if you can open a doc or dot from your personal space on the server or if you have to open Word and open your docs thru Word, but anyway it didn't work.

Have you tried creating a new template and did Word allow you to save it? File > New > New Document Pane opens > General Templates > Templates box opens > Select Blank Document > Select Template in Create New area >OK. Then Save and see what folder you're in. If the template folder is common to all users I would expect users would only have read and not write permissions, so access to save your template would probably be denied.

If you are allowed to save personal templates w/ a .dot extension to a folder to which Word directs you, then you can save your customizations in a template based on the default normal.dot. You should be able to load your personal template as a global template using Tools > Templates & Add Ins when you first open Word for the day. Supposedly, once a template is loaded as a global template it remains available globally until Word shuts down. It won't be as efficient as a customized normal.dot, but it would be better than re-customizing Word everyday. You just have to be sure when you use the Customize box that the Save In box at the bottom has your template chosen and not normal.dot.

I'm not exactly sure how it works to have normal.dot + a template both available globally, but [again supposedly] changes made are saved in the template as well as normal.dot. For this to work, only the creator of the template file can have permission to modify it - or just no one else can load it globally. I think it's all moot anyway. If you can save a template based on normal.dot, then I'd expect you to have a personal Templates folder and your own personal normal.dot.

If the "purge" they are doing is directed at all users' normal.dots in their personal Templates folders [rather than a common Templates folder] to prevent maintenance calls from corrupted normal.dots w/ inability to open Word, then you should be able to "save" your customization by creating that template based on the default normal.dot. If you can actually access your Templates folder - if it's in your personal space- then you can keep a copy of your normal.dot under another name and when normal.dot defaults you delete it, copy your copy and rename it normal.dot.

[MrJinje]

I work in a large hospital complex. I visit the hospital floors every day. My office computer and the hospital computers are running Win XP Pro and Office 2003. Most of the staff-access computers on the hospital floors are now totally locked down using single-sign-on. They provide access to server-based Office apps, so if you need to use one, you connect to the server over a Citrix connection. They provide access to your network share so that you can save documents to your personal space. Customized settings, e.g. changes I make in the global template Normal.dot (I'm guessing that's what I'm modifying), are periodically purged and the template is reset to the basic default template. Is there a way to have a template stored somewhere on my computer or network share that I can access to restore all my personal settings? I have looked at the Template and Add-ins function in Microsoft Word, but I can't find any good explanation of how to do what I want to do. Any suggestions?

Instead of making changes to the global template, create a new .DOT template and store it in your personal folder. It will not be available on first open like normal.dot, but if you open word, then open your template from your personal folder, you should be all set. Sure it will take a few extra clicks, but considering you probably don't have any admin rights, this is likely the best alternative.

EDIT: I assume Annie said pretty much the same thing, but I only read the first few chapters.

Edited December 21, 2009 by MrJinje

[AnnieMS]

sorry Mr. Jinje.

I am way too verbose for forums - trying to write more concisely.

For the circumstances MSFinOKC describes a template.dot in personal docs is probably all that is needed as well as the only way to solve the problem w/out special dispensation from IT. If MSFinOKC only uses one template, then making the template holding the customization changes "globally available" isn't necessary.