Replacing "normal.dot" to Fix Microsoft Word Problems

How to Avoid Spam    Deleting Duplicate Files    Tax Refund Scam    Keyboard Shortcuts

Putting Music in Your Email    Using MSWord    Symbols: £ ¢ ® © Ñ ¾ ¿ ¥    Free Downloadable Music

Type in a word or phrase to search all of Don's >>>
Computer Help or Downloadable Music pages.

Search for a word or phrase on this page by pressing Ctrl+F and typing it into the Find box that will appear.



 Tax Refund Scam
How to Avoid Spam
  Using System Restore
   Temporary Internet Files
     Non-stop Music on your PC

 Delete Normal.dot
  CAPS to lower case
   Remove Duplicate Files
     Red X Instead of a Picture

 Finding Lost Files
  Labels & Envelopes
   Make Your Own Icons
     Spreadsheet In PowerPoint

 Word Graphics to JPG
  Watermark a Document
    Add Music to Your Email
     Gmail, Outlook Express

  Rotate a Picture
   CYMK vs RGB Colors
     Adding Text to a Photo
      Crop and Resize Photos

  Blind Carbon Copies
   Move DBX Files to a New PC
     Copy Email Address Book
      Pics Blocked by OE

    MSWord Help
  1. Creating Labels & Envelopes with Word, Excel, & MSWorks
  2. Replacing NORMAL.DOC when MSWord Becomes Unstable
  3. Password Protecting Word & Excel Documents


    4. Pictures & Text Boxes
  4. Picture in a Text Box
  5. Placing Both Text & a Pic in a Text Box


    6. Other Document Types
  6. MSWord, Wordpad, Notepad, Google's Writely/Docs
  7. Converting Data between MSWord & PDF Files
  8. Show a Spreadsheet in PowerPoint (using Paint)
  9. Less Complicated Word Processing Programs


    10. Working with Columns
  10. Dividing a Page into Columns
  11. Lining Up Numbers in a Column


    12. Bullets & Page Numbering
  12. Using AutoCorrect for Bullets & Numbering
  13. Add Page Numbering to a Word Processing Document


    14. Telling a Story with Your PC
  14. Writing a Personal Memoir
  15. Creating a Newsletter
  16. MSWord Paragraph Formatting
  17. Convert CAPS to lower case (& vice versa)
  18. Sending a Family/Holiday Newsletter
  19. Automatic Backup of MSWord Documents
  20. Free Trials of MSWord 2007 & of WordPerfect Office X3


  21. Various Computer Audio Formats, such as WMA, WAV, MIDI, etc.
  22. Finding Free Downloadable Music Online
  23. Recover Songs from your Temporary Internet Files
  24. Converting Music Formats (WAV to MID, etc.)
  25. Converting Vinyl LPs & Audio Tapes to Digital Music Formats
  26. More on Converting Musical Collections to Digital Music Formats
  27. Playing Songs Continuously in Windows Media Player 11

Replacing "normal.dot" to
Fix Microsoft Word Problems

Microsoft Word is the world's most used word processing program, but it has never had a reputation for rock solid stability. Many argue that WordPerfect is a better word processor, and they may be right. However, my job is to help people learn to use the software they have, so I concentrate on the programs most people use.

One of the fundamentals of Word is that all its main settings are in a file named normal.dot. (In Word 2007 this file is called normal.dotm.) Every time you make a change to Word's settings, such as changing the default font (Times New Roman) to a different one the change is stored in normal.dot so that your preferred alphabet will come up each time you open Word in the future.

If normal.dot is deleted, the next time you launch Word it will look for the file, and when it can't be found Word will recreate the file in its original default condition. Therefore, if Word gets to the point where various kinds of error messages begin to appear the easiest fix is to delete normal.dot.

Of course you must realize that deleting this file will undo all your special settings and that they'll have to be reset. For most users this isn't a big deal because they probably didn't change all that many settings to begin with. However, anyone who makes lots of changes in default settings should think about making a backup of normal.dot and keeping it in a special folder and/or on other media, such as a flash memory drive.

Before you can delete the file, however, you first must find it. And it's not in the same place on all computers.

1.  Click on Start>Search>All Files & Folders and type normal.dot
     into the "Name or Partial Name:" field.  (Typing normal.dot
     will also find normal.dotm in Word 2007).

2.  Next click on Advanced Options and be sure that Search
     System Folders and Search Subfolders are checked, along
     with Search Hidden Files & Folders.

3.  Also, the "Look In:" field should be set to your main hard drive
     (usually Local Disk C:) rather than to an individual folder,
     such as "My Documents."

It's not uncommon to find multiple copies of normal.dot, so wait till the search has finished before deleting anything. When all the files have appeared they can be deleted by left-clicking them and pressing your DELETE key. Alternatively, you can select them and click the toolbar's red X. Or you can right-click them and choose DELETE on the popup menu.

Please note that normal.dot can not be deleted if any Word documents are open. Word must be closed in order to perform this action. After all copies of normal.dot have been purged you can reopen Word, which will go looking for the file. When it isn't found the program will simply recreate it with all of Word's original settings.

Despite Word's imperfections, I like the program and use it constantly. I began with Word 3 (for DOS) in 1987 and have used every upgrade since.


Questions or comments can be sent to: ComputerTutorTeam@gmail.com © Donald Ray Edrington - All Rights Reserved

Top of Page