I'm having a problem with my normal.dot becoming enormous after I run a
macro. This macro has a lot going on, but nothing that obviously would
affect my normal.dot file. It basically goes through a folder, opens a bunch
of files one at a time (about 70 or 80 files in all), looks for bookmarks
with certain things in their names, and copies and pastes the text in those
bookmarks into another document.

I have a couple suspicions of what might be going on, but not sure how to
prevent or fix these problems.

First, each one of these files that the macro is opening has their own
attached dot file with some special menus in them. (Those are the menus that
were used to set these bookmarks to begin with.) These dot files are NOT
global templates, but rather are just attached to those documents. I have a
suspicion that perhaps somehow opening a file with an attached template might
somehow cause your normal.dot template to be modified also. Any insight?

Alternatively, I wonder if there is something to do with style definitions.
All of these files that I am opening were received from different parties,
and a lot of them have their own special style definitions. I know I have
had major headaches before with people's styles somehow migrating into my
computer. Could it be that every new style in each of these documents I am
opening gets added to my normal.dot?

My normal.dot files starts out at 488k, and ends up at about 4 MB after I
run this macro a couple times. At that point, my computer (a rather powerful
new type of computer) becomes completely bogged down, and extremely slow. I
can close Word and restart my computer, but the slowness remains until I
replace my normal.dot file with an archived copy.

Thanks for any help.

Re: normal.dot template becomes huge by Shauna

Shauna
Wed Oct 04 08:11:21 CDT 2006

Hi td

I suspect that there's something fishy with the code that's running.

As a bit of a test, at Tools > Options > Save, tick "Prompt to save Normal
template". Start Word, do nothing, then exit Word. You should *not* receive
a prompt asking if you want to save normal.dot.

Now, start Word, run your macro, and exit Word. Do you get a "do you want to
save?" prompt? If so, then the macro is somehow dirtying your normal.dot.

>perhaps somehow opening a file with an attached template might
> somehow cause your normal.dot template to be modified also.
If there's no code in the 'other' template, then it won't do anything to
normal.dot. If there's code in the 'other' template, then it will affect
normal.dot only if it's poorly-written code.

>people's styles somehow migrating into my computer.
For some info about issues relating to this, see
What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my
formatting?
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/sharing/WillMyFormatChange.html

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word


"td" <td@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F2575E82-F55F-4FAF-921C-CD4A87415514@microsoft.com...
> I'm having a problem with my normal.dot becoming enormous after I run a
> macro. This macro has a lot going on, but nothing that obviously would
> affect my normal.dot file. It basically goes through a folder, opens a
> bunch
> of files one at a time (about 70 or 80 files in all), looks for bookmarks
> with certain things in their names, and copies and pastes the text in
> those
> bookmarks into another document.
>
> I have a couple suspicions of what might be going on, but not sure how to
> prevent or fix these problems.
>
> First, each one of these files that the macro is opening has their own
> attached dot file with some special menus in them. (Those are the menus
> that
> were used to set these bookmarks to begin with.) These dot files are NOT
> global templates, but rather are just attached to those documents. I have
> a
> suspicion that perhaps somehow opening a file with an attached template
> might
> somehow cause your normal.dot template to be modified also. Any insight?
>
> Alternatively, I wonder if there is something to do with style
> definitions.
> All of these files that I am opening were received from different parties,
> and a lot of them have their own special style definitions. I know I have
> had major headaches before with people's styles somehow migrating into my
> computer. Could it be that every new style in each of these documents I
> am
> opening gets added to my normal.dot?
>
> My normal.dot files starts out at 488k, and ends up at about 4 MB after I
> run this macro a couple times. At that point, my computer (a rather
> powerful
> new type of computer) becomes completely bogged down, and extremely slow.
> I
> can close Word and restart my computer, but the slowness remains until I
> replace my normal.dot file with an archived copy.
>
> Thanks for any help.



Re: normal.dot template becomes huge by KleChink

KleChink
Wed Oct 04 08:41:01 CDT 2006

Hi Shauna, I'm working with td on this project.
The template document that is being opened has code in it that creates a
context menu. How could this code, poorly written or not, change the
normal.dot?

Klechink

"Shauna Kelly" wrote:

> Hi td
>
> I suspect that there's something fishy with the code that's running.
>
> As a bit of a test, at Tools > Options > Save, tick "Prompt to save Normal
> template". Start Word, do nothing, then exit Word. You should *not* receive
> a prompt asking if you want to save normal.dot.
>
> Now, start Word, run your macro, and exit Word. Do you get a "do you want to
> save?" prompt? If so, then the macro is somehow dirtying your normal.dot.
>
> >perhaps somehow opening a file with an attached template might
> > somehow cause your normal.dot template to be modified also.
> If there's no code in the 'other' template, then it won't do anything to
> normal.dot. If there's code in the 'other' template, then it will affect
> normal.dot only if it's poorly-written code.
>
> >people's styles somehow migrating into my computer.
> For some info about issues relating to this, see
> What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my
> formatting?
> http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/sharing/WillMyFormatChange.html
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
> http://www.shaunakelly.com/word
>
>
> "td" <td@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:F2575E82-F55F-4FAF-921C-CD4A87415514@microsoft.com...
> > I'm having a problem with my normal.dot becoming enormous after I run a
> > macro. This macro has a lot going on, but nothing that obviously would
> > affect my normal.dot file. It basically goes through a folder, opens a
> > bunch
> > of files one at a time (about 70 or 80 files in all), looks for bookmarks
> > with certain things in their names, and copies and pastes the text in
> > those
> > bookmarks into another document.
> >
> > I have a couple suspicions of what might be going on, but not sure how to
> > prevent or fix these problems.
> >
> > First, each one of these files that the macro is opening has their own
> > attached dot file with some special menus in them. (Those are the menus
> > that
> > were used to set these bookmarks to begin with.) These dot files are NOT
> > global templates, but rather are just attached to those documents. I have
> > a
> > suspicion that perhaps somehow opening a file with an attached template
> > might
> > somehow cause your normal.dot template to be modified also. Any insight?
> >
> > Alternatively, I wonder if there is something to do with style
> > definitions.
> > All of these files that I am opening were received from different parties,
> > and a lot of them have their own special style definitions. I know I have
> > had major headaches before with people's styles somehow migrating into my
> > computer. Could it be that every new style in each of these documents I
> > am
> > opening gets added to my normal.dot?
> >
> > My normal.dot files starts out at 488k, and ends up at about 4 MB after I
> > run this macro a couple times. At that point, my computer (a rather
> > powerful
> > new type of computer) becomes completely bogged down, and extremely slow.
> > I
> > can close Word and restart my computer, but the slowness remains until I
> > replace my normal.dot file with an archived copy.
> >
> > Thanks for any help.
>
>
>

Re: normal.dot template becomes huge by Jean-Guy

Jean-Guy
Wed Oct 04 17:26:11 CDT 2006

KleChink was telling us:
KleChink nous racontait que :

> Hi Shauna, I'm working with td on this project.
> The template document that is being opened has code in it that
> creates a context menu. How could this code, poorly written or not,
> change the normal.dot?

Which template receives the context menu changes?

If you do not specify a template by using "CustomizationContext" then you
are dirtying your Normal.dot. And yes, many menu changes will for sure
inflate your template.

--
Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
jmarcilREMOVE@CAPSsympatico.caTHISTOO
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org



Re: normal.dot template becomes huge by KleChink

KleChink
Thu Oct 05 06:17:02 CDT 2006

Interesting. Thank you. I'll look into that.

"Jean-Guy Marcil" wrote:

> KleChink was telling us:
> KleChink nous racontait que :
>
> > Hi Shauna, I'm working with td on this project.
> > The template document that is being opened has code in it that
> > creates a context menu. How could this code, poorly written or not,
> > change the normal.dot?
>
> Which template receives the context menu changes?
>
> If you do not specify a template by using "CustomizationContext" then you
> are dirtying your Normal.dot. And yes, many menu changes will for sure
> inflate your template.
>
> --
> Salut!
> _______________________________________
> Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
> jmarcilREMOVE@CAPSsympatico.caTHISTOO
> Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org
>
>
>