Word 2010 Macros disappear when Word is closed

Anonymous
2011-01-17T14:38:14+00:00

Hi folks,

I've been using Word since the beginning of time and using simple macros in Word to increase efficiency.  I recently upgraded (or downgraded) to Word 2010 and now the macros disappear when I close Word.  I've checked everywhere to fix this annoyance and changed the Trust Centre settings to enable macros, made sure I'm saving them in the correct template, even checked the add-ins.  What was once a simple and elegant little function has morphed into a complicated labryinth of settings.  I thought software upgrades were to make the process more intuitive and simple but here I've spent over an hour trying to find a solution.  The 90 days of support for Office is a joke. After phoning in to 1-800-668-7975 I went through 10 questions with the 'electronic host. ' Finally you get a person who refers you to the Word Professional support person who then tells you to go to a website and search the forums. I've been a support of Microsoft products for years but I think this is the beginning of the end for Microsoft. Windows 7 is certainly a big improverement over the last two OSs but Office Word 2010 is a pain.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-01-17T15:24:33+00:00

Word 2010 stores macros in the same manner as earlier versions - in templates, documents and by default the normal template.

If you have an old normal.dot file with your macros from an earlier Word version, rename the Word 2010 normal template (normal.dotm) to oldnormal.dotm with Word closed.

Put the old normal.dot file in the same folder as oldnormal.dotm and restart Word. Word will read the old template and create a new normal template. From Word Options > Advanced > Save - Check the option to prompt to save the normal template (and preferably the option to create backups). Close Word and you should get a prompt to save the normal template. Save it!

Remove the old normal.dot from the folder and restart Word. Your macros should be available. Whether they will work correctly in Word 2010 rather depends on what they do.

If you don't have an old normal.dot file - just complete the other steps. You will have to add macros to the resulting template.

By default the Word Startup and User Templates folders are trusted folders. If you have moved those locations from the default settings you will need to add the folders to the trusted folders list.

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

www.gmayor.com

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-08-03T18:30:31+00:00

    This has worked a treat and I've got back not only all my macros but also all my Autotext entries, including the ones which consist of several paragraphs (which Word 2010 doesn't seem to allow).

    I can tweak the macros I wrote previously too - eg to get them to open a document now stored somewhere different from where it was when I first wrote the macro.

    However, I still can't write new macros, and despite checking the option to prompt to save the normal template, I never get this prompt and newly-written macros still disappear on closing Word.

    Many thanks however for your help - it's got me a lot further on and I have dozens and dozens of macros/autotext entries back I thought had gone for good!

    Ken

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  2. Charles Kenyon 170.9K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-02T19:01:37+00:00

    This is likely caused by a poorly-written Add-In marking your normal.dot as not changed. They do this so they can make changes and not have them saved or give you a prompt.

    Look at threads about being unable to save changes to defaults, same problem.

    You can (1) save your macros to a different template and load that template as an Add-In yourself, or

    (2) open, dirty, and then save the Normal template, or

    (3) figure out which Add-In is causing the problem and uninstall it. There are a couple of Add-In dealing with BlueTooth that seem to be causing problems lately.

     However, even those written by Adobe or even Microsoft have been known to cause problems.

    Normal Template in Microsoft Word - How to Open

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  3. Stefan Blom 352.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-02T14:16:12+00:00

    If you create macros in the Macro dialog box (Alt+F8), you can specify a location in the "Macros in" box. The Normal template should be the default, though.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-08-02T13:41:54+00:00

    I have no idea how to save them; or how to choose where to save them! 

    In simpler times, I just wrote the macro when Word was open, and on closing Word was told I had made changes that affected the normal template - did I want to save them; I said yes, and they were saved (in the normal.dot template, I presume).  Thereafter they were available in every Word document and I could allocate them a meaningful icon by drawing one myself, rather than having to choose from a finite list of icons (none of which necessarily remind me what the macro does) as is the case today.

    Now I can't save them at all

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