Office & productivity software forum: problem when closing Word 2007 with normal.dotm

I don't use Word 2007 as I am still stuck on Word 2002 (XP), but I understand from the Microsoft link below that Normal.dotm is the equivalent of Word 2002's Normal.dot.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100307561033.aspx

In your post you say you are working in "My Documents", so I assume you are opening files from there, and not from within Word. Things I would try;

1] Open Word, navigate to your file from within Word and open. Save the document immediately, then use Word's Close program option to close Word down instead of the "X" top right. Do you still get the same message?

2] If so, then I would delete Normal.dotm and let Word re-create it when you next open Word 2007. This will lose all formatting changes you have made up to this point. If you don't want to lose those changes, instead of deleting Normal.dotm, rename it to Normal.old, or anything similar. You can always name it back later if you wish. Then

3] Open the document, and close it and Word down again. Any error messages, or has that cleared it?

Mark

Hi Kim,

You may have other Normal.dotm files elsewhere on your system, but Word will only work with the one that is stored in the default location. You can create your own .dotm files, at least you could create your own Normal.dot files in Word 2002, but looking deeper into this I see that the issue may not be as simple as I thought.

Apparently Word 2007 also has a QAT, that works closely with Normal.dotm. QAT is the Quick Access Toolbar, and changes to that are saved in a file called Word.qat. In Windows XP, this file is found in;
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office.

I know very little about this, and you may need to do your own research. I did find the link below though from the Word2007 Bible;
http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com/2008/04/16/oops-thanks-alan-gorski/

Google will help there.

I understand your reluctance to mess with your existing Normal.dotm file, and I would try it out the following way.

1] Copy all my existing documents. It's always a good idea to have a backup anyway, but I would make extra copies, save them elsewhere on the computer other than My Documents, and just work on those copies.

2] Copy Normal.dotm to some other name and save it twice, (eg you also have a backup).

3] Delete Normal.dotm, and restart Word.

4] Open one of the 'copies' of your documents, and test for formatting and auto-correct features. Resave the document and try another one.

5] When you are satisfied that everything is OK, you can then decide what to do next. Keep the new Normal.dotm, or replace that with one of your backup copies.

6] Keep copies of everything for now until you are happy that Word is now working well.

I hope that helps, but like I have said, there appears to be a new dimension to Normal.dotm now, with the introduction of QAT.

Mark

I also cannot save new macros or quick parts because of it. I need to say yes to the question, "Do you want to save?" but I cannot get out of the program if I do, and if I force logging off or closing the computer the macros and quick parts are not saved. My office computer tech has fixed it once but it was temporary.
Please help!!!