Normal.dot - always opens in Final Showing Markup

[Robie]

Hi

Using Office 2003/2007 and Windows 7/XP.

Our Normal.dot is saved in 'Final' view yet whenever a 'Normal' document is created/opened, it opens in 'Final Showing Markup' view! Is there anyway to open in 'Final' view without using a macro to reset the 'rivisions' options. The reason for not using a macro is that it would always come up the 'Macro warning message' whenever a 'Normal.dot' document is created/opened.

Thanks.

Robie

[HansV]

Open Normal.dot (Word 2003) or Normal.dotm (Word 2007).
Make sure that Track Changes is OFF.
Accept all changes.
Save and close the template.

[Robie]

Open Normal.dot (Word 2003) or Normal.dotm (Word 2007).
Make sure that Track Changes is OFF.
Accept all changes.
Save and close the template.

Thanks Hans, that's what I thought as well.

I opened my Normal.doc for edit, switched-off TC, set the view to 'Final', accepted all Tracked Changes and saved it.

But, no difference. Any time I create a new document using Normal.dot, it opens with 'Final Showing Markup'. But, when I open Normal.dot to edit, it comes with 'Final' view.

[HansV]

What happens if you rename Normal.dot to Normal.old and let Word create a new one? Word will create Normal.dot if you change a default setting.
Does the behavior persist?

[Robie]

What happens if you rename Normal.dot to Normal.old and let Word create a new one? Word will create Normal.dot if you change a default setting.
Does the behavior persist?

Not quite - I did as you suggested (rebuilt the Normal.dot). But it still opened with 'Final Showing Markup'. The only way to get it to 'Final' was to switch-off Options|Security | Make hidden mark-up visible when opening or saving'.

I am not quite sure it is a good idea or not to switch-off 'showing of markup texts'! It's possible that some users may have switched on tracked changes and would not want to save/send the document with those changes in the document. If it shows that there could be tracked changes in the document then it is surely better.

What's the general view on this?

[StuartR]

Not quite - I did as you suggested (rebuilt the Normal.dot). But it still opened with 'Final Showing Markup'. The only way to get it to 'Final' was to switch-off Options|Security | Make hidden mark-up visible when opening or saving'...

I think it is a very bad idea to switch this off.

We really need to understand why this is happening.
What happens if you start Word with the /a switch to prevent any add-ins from running?
Can you see any marked changes in the Word document when you start Word, what happens if you step to the next marked change?

[Robie]

Not quite - I did as you suggested (rebuilt the Normal.dot). But it still opened with 'Final Showing Markup'. The only way to get it to 'Final' was to switch-off Options|Security | Make hidden mark-up visible when opening or saving'...

I think it is a very bad idea to switch this off.

We really need to understand why this is happening.
What happens if you start Word with the /a switch to prevent any add-ins from running?
Can you see any marked changes in the Word document when you start Word, what happens if you step to the next marked change?

Thanks for the response Stuart. Can't do the test right now but will try over the weekend at home & will update with my findings.

[Robie]

Not quite - I did as you suggested (rebuilt the Normal.dot). But it still opened with 'Final Showing Markup'. The only way to get it to 'Final' was to switch-off Options|Security | Make hidden mark-up visible when opening or saving'...

I think it is a very bad idea to switch this off.

We really need to understand why this is happening.
What happens if you start Word with the /a switch to prevent any add-ins from running?
Can you see any marked changes in the Word document when you start Word, what happens if you step to the next marked change?

Winword/a creates a new document with 'Final Showing Markup' & *no* tracked changes.

[StuartR]

...
Winword/a creates a new document with 'Final Showing Markup' & *no* tracked changes.

Bother, that's the worst possible outcome from that test.

The only other ideas I have are pretty drastic. You could deinstall Word, delete the data key, and install Word again to see if that fixes it. Maybe someone will come up with a better idea so wait a bit before you try that.