OFF97: Normal.dot File Is Removed When You Remove Office 97

When you run the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program in maintenance mode and click Remove All, the Setup program may remove the Normal.dot template.

This behavior occurs when the following conditions are true:

• An earlier version of Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word is installed on the computer.
  
  -and-
  
  
• You install Microsoft Office 97 and allow the Setup program to remove the earlier Office programs.
  
  -and-
  
  
• You remove Microsoft Office 97 by running the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program and clicking Remove All.

This behavior does not occur if you install Microsoft Office 97 on a computer without earlier versions of Microsoft Office programs or Microsoft Word.

To work around this behavior, make a backup copy of Normal.dot and move it to another folder (for example, C:\My Documents) BEFORE you remove Microsoft Office 97.

Normal.dot is used by Microsoft Word to store macros, AutoText entries, toolbars, custom menu settings, and shortcut keys that you use in Microsoft Word.

Normally, when you run the Office 97 Setup program and click Remove All, the Setup program removes only files that it previously installed. Because the Normal.dot file is not installed by the Office 97 Setup program, you would expect the Normal.dot to remain on the computer.

However, if the Setup program detects an older copy of Normal.dot on the computer when you first install Office 97, the Setup program copies Normal.dot to a new folder (usually, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates) so that you can use it with Microsoft Word 97. Because the Setup program moves the template, the Setup program tracks this file as a file that it installed and removes it when you click Remove All.

NOTE: If you allow the Microsoft Office 97 Setup program to remove earlier programs, the folder that contains Microsoft Word templates (usually, C:\Msoffice\Templates) may not be removed. This folder also contains a copy of Normal.dot; however, this copy of the template is not updated by Microsoft Word 97.