Word Woes ...

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Hi all,

I have what seems a very easy problem to fix, and yet have been unable to fix it. Forgive me, I know it is a most mundane problem but I simply cannot overcome it with my knowledge of word and have exhausted every approach I can think of.

When using word (home & student edition) for the longest time it worked as it should, documents opened as US Letter size (i believe 8.50 by 11) ... then the other day I opened a document I had made years ago which I had formatted with my PC to resemble a paperback book size, roughly 4" by 6.5".

For some reason there was no way for me to simply edit the paper size of that document to the default US Letter size, and the only way I found that I could get the text from the paperback style page to a standard document page was to have a standard document page open already, with text on it, then copy and paste from the other. This seemed like a whole-heartedly round-a-bout pointless and time consuming way to do things, but page setup didn't alter a darned thing and nothing under the format did a shade better either.

Now, since forcing that to have worked, I am stuck somehow with word opening all new documents in the paperback page style, that is every time i press (apple + n) a new blank document opens as a page size of roughly 4" by 6.5" ... and changing the page setup, the format or anything can get a new document to open as the default, standard, US Letter size I want.

I am currently thinking now of uninstalling and reinstalling, but haven't done so yet as I have a great many word documents on my machine that cannot be erased, and I fear uninstalling word (if that is what needs to be done) will erase them.

Any help that can be offered would be greatly appreciated. It is such a simple thing for me not to be able to do, I understanding changing a page layout and size is among the first things anyone using word learns how to do, but for the life of me I cannot change my page size at all. Period. No matter what I try.

I thank anyone who knows more than I and can help.

Happy holidays,

Redvers.
 
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Try changing the settings under File > Page Setup...
 
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As i said a few times in my post I have done this, even for kicks making the page setup ones such as A3, tabloid, then going for A4 or US Letter ... my document remains unchanged in size, format or appearance no matter what page setup I choose.
 
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I fear uninstalling word (if that is what needs to be done) will erase them.

No, it won't. Word is kept in your Applications Folder. Your files should be in your Documents Folder. It wouldn't be a very smart move by a software developer to take your files away when you reinstalled their software.

To solve your problem, open the Normal file.
In OS10.5 (what I have) it is found in Users/YourUserName/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Do your page setup routine on it and Save
 
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I have found and opened the "normal" document you speak of. It is a US Letter page setup which I want all my word documents to open as by default.

When you say "save it" to where should it be saved. Word will not allow it to be saved over or in the same folder with the same name as the original "normal" document.

Saving it in my document folder, closing and opening word again still results in the same small 4" by 6.5" page setup being opened as the blank document. So nothing has been fixed by saving the "normal" document in the locations I have tried.

I have hope...
 

chscag

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I have found and opened the "normal" document you speak of. It is a US Letter page setup which I want all my word documents to open as by default.

When you say "save it" to where should it be saved. Word will not allow it to be saved over or in the same folder with the same name as the original "normal" document.

Saving it in my document folder, closing and opening word again still results in the same small 4" by 6.5" page setup being opened as the blank document. So nothing has been fixed by saving the "normal" document in the locations I have tried. I have hope...

Hopefully we're speaking here of the Word "normal template" known as "normal.dotm" ??

If so, close Word. Navigate to the normal.dotm file which should be located in: /Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/normal.dotm

Double click the normal.dotm file. Word will automatically open the file. Make any changes you wish - page setup, letter size, font, style, etc. and then save the file. It should save over itself as "normal.dotm". If it refuses to save over itself, do this:

Close Word. Move the normal.dotm from its current location to your desktop. Open Word. A new default "normal.dotm" file will be created. That will allow you to get back to the way you had things set up before.

Regards.
 
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I have the normal.dotm document open - however:

When i go to file : page setup : US Letter it changes nothing. If for kicks I put envelope DL it changes nothing. Nothing visually changes despite any of the option shaving been selected and "okay'ed"

I would assume altering the page setup would immediately and visually change the size, shape, dimensions of the word document open. However, nothing - at all - is changing - ever.

My view is set to print layout, on 125% zoom.

This is so strange. What a nightmare it would be if every document I opened needed to be changed to another type - if just getting back to US Letter dimensions is such a pain...
 
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Maybe, but don't delete it... Remove it.

In my (OS 10.5.8) Applications/Office/Additional Tools/Remove Office folder, I have Remove Office. Use that to uninstall.

Reinstall from your original disc, apply updates using Microsoft AutoUpdate
 

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Move on and use Open Office? It's free and it's does pretty much everything Microsoft Office does.
 

chscag

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To Redvers:

Nothing strange about what happened. Changing the "normal.dotm" template will only effect new documents. Every document that you created with the former normal template can only be changed manually. Nothing is going to magically change an already opened document by changing its template.

And as far as the suggestion to download Open Office, you can certainly do that but why do you need another Office suite when you already have a good one?

Regards.
 
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When i go to file : page setup : US Letter it changes nothing. If for kicks I put envelope DL it changes nothing. Nothing visually changes despite any of the option shaving been selected and "okay'ed"

Just had a new thought on this... What View is the file set to? If it's in Normal view, what you describe is, well, normal. If it's set to Page View, you should see the changes.

Sorry if that's too obvious and you already were aware of it and have Page View selected. But, let's get the "obvious" things out of the way.
 

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