Freequently when I exit a MS Word file I find my screen (Dell Inspiron 4100 with Windows XP) still occupied, by something called “NormalX.dot,” where the X is an ordinary number (and I have to save this “file” to get the shtick off my screen). What is this and how do I get rid of it?
Every document that’s opened in MS-Word operates off a document template (.dot) base. If you don’t choose to open or create your document from a saved template, Word automatically uses a standard template called Normal.dot from the installation files.
Now, why this is getting left open when you close the program, that I can’t help you with. It sounds like it’s trying to save a copy for some reason (that’s the source of the number–when you do a ‘save as’ with an existing file in Windows into the same folderit adds a number to the filename to keep you from accidentally replacing the original). But I’ve never seen this happen myself.
Unless you’ve purposely changed something in your Word interface (changed buttons, added styles, and such), you shouldn’t save the Normal.dot template when it prompts.
Some add-ins can cause this. My partner’s Palm Pilot application came with an add-in for Word that drove us crazy asking us to save Normal.dot every time we opened Word.
You can find a lot of good information about how templates work at the Word MVP site.
Uncheck it to turn it off in the options.
Option - Save - Prompt to save normal templates
If you do this, be warned that it could cause problems later. It’s ridiculously easy to save a corruption in the Normal.dot template. If you uncheck that option, it saves automatically instead of giving you the choice.
The only thing I want to do is clear the screen. I get the impression that the “Normal” won’t go away unless I save. And the boxes in the upper right (including the X to exit) don’t work.
We went though this at my company a bunch of years ago. In our case it was a macro virus that caused the problem.
Here is more info from Microsoft.