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Word 2013 insists on asking if I want to save the document template, or in the case of a custom template, save that named template. I have followed the recommendations for turning this "feature" off, but it persists. I have unchecked the box labeled "Prompt Before Saving Normal Template**"** in both the normal and the custom templates. No change. It still prompts me to save. I worry that there is something wrong with my installation (Word also hangs if I open a folder and double-click on a document to open it. I have learned that I can right-click and select "Restore" to get the document to open, but this seems to suggest a problem with the program or the installation).
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
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The template should be saved in the User Templates folder and you should use File>New and select the template as the basis of the document that you want to produce.
I wish I knew how to reply to everyone who has posted. I am glad I started this post because I now know I am not the only one who is annoyed by the problem. IT WENT AWAY! I wish I could provide a fix to everyone, but my experience indicates the problem may be individualized because the background issues are so multivariable. In my case, I got rid of my Dell XPS14 kludge and replaced it with a new, Maingear. I reinstalled Orifice 2013 (intentional misspelling here) and it has never happened. Thus, there was possibly an add-in problem or a software interaction, or a registry issue that did not remain with the clean install (the Dell had previously sported Orifice 2007 and 2010) of Orifice 2013. Who knows? People might want to try that though.
When I previously had the problem, Weird 2013 (same thing) would even ask if I wanted to save the normal template, which everyone knows Weird will then refuse to do under the same name. Now, I just don't have the problem. Yipee. Sorry for everyone who still does.
When I previously had the problem, Weird 2013 (same thing) would even ask if I wanted to save the normal template, which everyone knows Weird will then refuse to do under the same name. Now, I just don't have the problem. Yipee. Sorry for everyone who still does.
If you have the option "Prompt to save the Normal template" enabled (which you should have, to warn you when someone/something other than you has made changes to it), you will get this prompt when you exit Word if have made changes that affect Normal.dotm. And you can certainly save Normal.dotm under the same name, not just by answering Yes to the prompt but also after opening the file for direct editing. If Word refuses to save Normal.dotm under the same name, then that is a problem in itself. It is true that you can't create a file and save it as Normal.dotm while the original template is open, but that's another issue, and in fact you can't actually create a true Normal.dotm, anyway, because it has features that are not transferred to any other document or template based on it. The only way to create a new Normal.dotm is to delete or rename the existing one, whereupon Word will generate a fresh, factory-default copy from within itself.
Many thanks for this thread - it was driving me crazy!
I use custom templates to control styles centrally. I got the new laptop a week ago, got the song library on, and every time I opened a document and closed it, WITHOUT MAKING ANY CHANGES, it asked whether I wanted to save the custom template.
It was also saving the normal template without my knowledge as I discovered later when I opened 10 docs at once from explorer - got in a terrible mess trying to close them because it couldn't save normal from any doc because the other docs had it locked!!! In the confusion, it even managed to lose the macro I was using on these docs (that had been created and saved in a previous session some hours earlier).
Yes, the culprit was the bluetooth add-in on my laptop as well (pre-installed by Dell). I've disabled it and everything is peachy now. I hadn't realised how much the dialogs were annoying me until I fixed it 10 minutes ago. Word loads faster now, as well. (I had already been wondering "What exactly is bluetooth, and why do I need it?!?!" anyway... hehe)
INTERESTINGLY, the "Prompt before saving Normal" option was switched off as installed! From Suzanne's comments I'm kind of guessing that this isn't the Microsoft default for this setting?
Anyway, it's on again now - I agree with earlier posts, I want to know when my normal template is being updated while saving a document... ESPECIALLY if I haven't made any changes!!!
Unfortunately, the default for a new installation of Word is that "Prompt before saving Normal template" is turned off.