Can't change default style in Word

To quickly open the Normal template as a document, you can use the following trick: In Word, press Alt+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor. Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window. Type

NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

and press Enter. Normal opens in a separate document window (look at the title bar). Close the Visual Basic Editor and change the defaults in Normal.

Note that most changes (such as changing font, size, line spacing, etc.) can be done from Word's dialog boxes, without opening Normal. If you find that you have to open the template for these changes, something is preventing you from correctly saving it. This must be troubleshot separately; see the sections referring to add-ins in the KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541/en-us/.

I tried this and it seemed to work.  It's different from the way I have done it in the past.  Here is what I did to change from "Normal" to "No Spacing": 

Open a Word document. 

Click on File. 

Click on Open. 

Click on Templates. 

Double-click on Normal.dotm. 

Click on "No Spacing". 

Click on File. 

Click on Save. 

Click on the "X" in the upper right corner to close the document. 

Then the next time I opened a Word document, it showed "No Spacing". 

This is the only setting I have tried to change, but hopefully this method would work for other settings as well.

Sadly none of the solutions work for me. I can open up the Normal.dotm template in Word, modify it, save it to over-write the existing file then close Word. When I re-launch Word a pane opens up telling me Word has recovered the Normal file and asks if I want to save it. It doesn't matter whether I select that recovered file or just close the recovered file window, I still end up with the original un-modified settings. There are no add-ins at all causing conflicts. I've tried deleting the Normal.dotm file and creating a new template but that doesn't work either. Seems to me that there's a bug in Word (like the Word Previewer bug) that no-one knows why it happens or can solve it. Still, I hate giving up on anything so let's see if any of you can come with a fix, please. Over to you.

I just tried a test on my copy of MS Word.  I was still able to change Normal.dotm, save it, and close it.  Then when I opened a new Word document, the changes were there.  As a test, I changed "No Spacing" to "Heading 1".  That worked fine.  Then I changed it back to "No Spacing", which is what I want, and that worked ok. 

So I don't know what changes you are trying to make, but the changes I have described seem to work ok.

HI, thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what you mean by "modify Normal directly." I've tried modifying the Normal style on the ribbon, but to no effect. When I re-launch Word, I'm back at the 1.15 line spacing.

Hi, thanks for the long and detailed response. The first information I can give you is that if I delete Normal.dotm, then launch Word and inspect the Template folder, no Normal template has been created automatically in the Templates folder. I've just tried this. I've also checked the location for User templates and it's the expected default location where I already have a NormalEmail template. So I can't carry out your first suggestion of noting the time stamp.

Also I have no active application add-ins running. I just re-checked.

To modify normal "directly", the idea is you open the NORMAL.DOTM file for editing, In the past that was the only way to make changes to styles. Slowly MS added functions that would allow you to save style and settings changes from the UI. But, experience has shown that those changes are not always saved as expected. So, it is more consistent to fall back to the "roots" of Word and edit NORMAL.DOTM directly.

Change Default Settings - Edit Normal.DOT(M)

http://addbalance.com/word/normaltemplate.htm

http://word.mvps.org/faqs/general/SaveViewAndZoom.htm

Edit NORMAL.DOTM

From within Word:

·         press Alt+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor.

·         Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window.

·         Type

NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument

·         and press Enter.

·         The Normal template displays in a separate window

·         you should now close the Visual Basic Editor

·         Modify the style, or the document defaults, as appropriate.

·         When you are done, save and close Normal.

After deleting/renaming NORMAL.DOTM, it will be recreated at need. Often that is immediately. Sometimes it does not happen until you have made a setting change that has to be saved in NORMAL.DOTM.  The easiest change of that sort to identify and make is changing a paragraph style, such as creating a new style.

Are you sure about no addins? Even straight out of the box, Word has several addins working. In theory they are bug free, but ... in theory they could become corrupted.

Hi, thanks for the long and detailed response. The first information I can give you is that if I delete Normal.dotm, then launch Word and inspect the Template folder, no Normal template has been created automatically in the Templates folder. I've just tried this. I've also checked the location for User templates and it's the expected default location where I already have a NormalEmail template. So I can't carry out your first suggestion of noting the time stamp.

Also I have no active application add-ins running. I just re-checked.