Opening a Word Document

Anonymous
2016-11-12T20:24:13+00:00

I've been using Word for 15 or so years!  Since it first came out!  And a new document always opened as Document1.doc.  Of late a new document comes out as Template1?  And all my settings are gone, as I like certain margin settings.  It always reverts to the already programmed ones!  How do I get new documents to open in the former Document 1.doc format?  Thanks.

Sorry but another problem has showed up that is new!  When I try to send a document I am working with to the dock so I can just pull it up as needed, the document is sent to the Word icon!  It is really weird, then to re-open the document I have to click on the software Word icon that is in the dock and the document comes up on the screen.  I haven't tried this with more than one document but I am going to see what happens when I close this community questioning session.  Hopefully someone can answer as it is crazy to get a chat session with Word people.  I'm using Office 2007 version but never had a problem before for the last couple of years!!!  They wanted me to buy a whole new Word for about $150.00 which is scammy to me! Since I am a university professor I can get the program and new version a whole lot less at the university bookstore!!!!!  Well, such is life.  I would appreciate any response, so thank you right now!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2016-11-13T20:53:28+00:00

Yes, you were close to the start of life for Word. Closer than I was.  Although I started my thesis on an Apple II a couple of years before Word was released I was using other programs until 1991..

You don't have to have a deep technical understanding of the computer and the programs you use, but it does help.  It would help you to use Word more effectively to know some of the basics of the logic of how Word works.

First of all, Word uses a file called NORMAL.DOTM to save most of the setup parameters you set.  As you noted, Word comes with default settings for page size, margins, headings etc. Every user can customize them, as you did in the past. Those customizations are saved in NORMAL.DOTM.

Another place that Word saves customizations is "STYLES".  In Word, styles control the formatting applied to text. Generally, styles apply to the whole paragraph, but there are now also "character" styles you can apply to specific letters inside of a paragraph. You can use the default styles provided by Word or you can create custom ones. These styles are also stored inside of the NORMAL.DOTM template. They get pulled into each document as you create them.

Here is a brief article about styles:

Apply, change, create, or delete a style - Word for Mac - Office Support

Running an old version of Word/Office is not an excuse for it to not work properly even on the newest version of the OS.  I do not believe that is the direct cause of your problem. I continued to use Office 2003 on Windows until just earlier this year.  Many people still use it, and even older versions.  However, it is not advisable to use versions like 2008 (and 2003) that are no longer officially supported by MS. They are much more susceptible to being hacked. So yes, it is advisable that you get a newer version.

https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-ending-support-for-office-for-mac-2008/

You should talk to your IT help desk/department to find out if your school is providing FREE copies of Office 365 Education to staff and students

Student Advantage / Office 365 Education

http://expertzone.microsoft.com/Story/Article?token=Hz46U

<snip>

Student Advantage is a program that schools can sign up for, giving their students and faculty access to Office 365 Education. A version of Office 365 specifically tailored to the needs of students and teachers, Office 365 Education enables them to create, collaborate, and share their school work using apps they know and trust, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Plus, it includes 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage.

.

Free for both students and faculty, Office 365 Education provides access to class materials anywhere on the devices they choose. They can easily collaborate with classmates and peers, save time, and develop the Office skills that matter to real-world employers.

</snip>

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-13T17:00:39+00:00

    Thank you for your reply.  I was a bit over anxious since I've never had problems like started just this past week in all the years I've been using Word.  Now that I checked it out more precisely I started using the software about 29 years ago.  Earlier I was just indicating that it has been a very long time.  I started out using a Mac as a graduate student (in order to do my dissertation) on a Macintosh SE.  But that is neither here nor there as I am only interested in my current problem.  Even though I've been on the computer for decades I am not all that knowledgeable in the system particulars.  I don't know what you mean by saving customizations, and vaguely know what normal.dotm means as I've changed the format of saving a few times.  It started opening new documents in Template which I never heard of prior to a couple of weeks ago!  I'll check out the website you noted.  Thanks for your attention to my question, at any rate.  I'm not sure exactly what I did but Word is back to working, meaning I am able to open new documents, but the document formatting keeps changing to the default even though when I put in the margins I want and say make them the default and save those changes.  The program just isn't working like it was and I don't know why as it was working "perfectly" a week ago!

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-13T16:08:27+00:00

    I've been using Word for 15 or so years!  Since it first came out! 

    They wanted me to buy a whole new Word for about $150.00 which is scammy to me!

    Since you are an academic, you might want to get your facts correct. 15 years is more than 15 years short of when Word came out!  Word for DOS came out in 1983 and Word for Mac came out in 1985!

    It is only a scam if you fall for it. Lately MS has been taken over by the marketing weanies who are out of control pushing their spam "encouraging" people to "upgrade" to the latest version of Windows and Office. But you don't have to do it.  It is just "advertising", you can simply ignore it.

    It sounds like you have a problem with the file that saves your customizations, normal.dotm. You may want to rename the current one, let Word generate a clean new one then re save your custom settings to the new one:

    http://www.dummies.com/software/microsoft-office-for-mac/word-for-mac/office-2011-for-mac-change-words-default-document/

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-13T15:51:32+00:00

    Thank you for your reply.  I am using Office 2008 but the About Word says it is copyrighted 2007 Microsoft Corporation.  I've been using Word for over a decade and updated it until about a year ago and since I've not been having any problems didn't think to update it any further.  I'ver never used Windows, as I have an iMac 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 using macOS Sierra Version 10.12.1.  I hope that is enough to convince you I need help on my Mac.  Problems as indicated in my original question are still occurring.

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  4. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 438.6K Reputation points
    2016-11-13T15:23:53+00:00

    Office 2007 is a version for the Windows operating system. If that's what you're using you've posted to the wrong Community. This one is for the Mac versions. When posting it's best to select the appropriate version information as well from the list of filters on the left. We'd help if we could, but issues of this nature are approached differently on the 2 platforms.

    This link will take you to where you need to be... For future reference, note the settings on the left of that page. (I chose Windows other as the Office Sub-topic because you didn't specify your OS version.)

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