Word and Outlook are messed up whenever I open a new document/email
Posted by: David
What's wrong?
You opened up Word or Outlook and were going to type a new document or email but the format is all messed up.
How did this happen?
You accidently, or maybe not so accidently changed your template for regular blank documents.
What does a regular blank template mean?
Every time you open up Word or Outlook (which uses Word) you open up a blank document template. Normally this would just include a basic file with normal margins and nothing in it.
Some people change their normal template because they do certain jobs over and over so it was a good idea for Microsoft to allow you to edit that, but if you didn't know that you changed it or how it was possible to change it then you have a problem, and that's why you are here.
OK, so you understand what is going on but you just want to fix it.
Windows 7 Office 07
- First make sure you have your folder options set to view hidden files. You can search how to do that if you don't know how, it is very simple.
- Then, browse to your C: drive, then go to Users > Username > App Data > Roaming > Microsoft > Templates and you should see the normal.dotm file.
normal.dotm
- From here you should close Outlook and Word and make sure that they are closed in the task manager.
- Simply delete the normal.dotm template file. It will be recreated from scratch when you start Word again.
Windows XP Office 07/03
- Follow the same isntructions for Windows 7 and Office 07 but go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.
- From here you can delete normal.dotm for Office 07 or normal.dot for Office 03.
Tip for success
Try to remember this can affect Outlook as well. Outlook uses Word to edit e-mails so it is important that you recognize this as a possible problem for similar issues with Outlook as well. Most people who use a computer wont understand this, so it is important to keep it in mind.