Restoring the Normal Template in Word

Modify Styles Dialog Box

Have you made a complete mess out of your Normal template – the default template in Word?  Perhaps you made some unwanted formatting changes to the template and now every document that you create received the unwanted formatting.  

There are three solutions:

• Rename the Normal.dotm file (located in your Templates folder) to something else (such as OldNormal.dotm).  If Word cannot find the Normal.dotm file, it will automatically create a new one.  Of course, this means you will lose all of your custom settings – macros, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, AutoCorrect entries, etc.
• Use the Modify Style dialog box (that we discussed yesterday when we talking about Automatically Updating Styles) and set all of the settings to the default (Calibri, 11 pt font, Automatic color, Left-Aligned, Single line spacing, Spacing 10 pt After, and Window/Orphan Control). When finished, click the New Documents Based on this Template radio button.
• A third option is to use a combination of the two – rename the Normal.dotm file and then use the Organizer to move your custom styles, toolbars, macros, etc. from the OldNormal.dotm file to the new Normal.dotm file.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at working with the Organizer.

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