Stop Toolbar Changes From Disappearing

The other day I spent considerable time customizing my toolbars in Word—adding functions that I use frequently and removing those I hardly ever use. But when I came back the next day, all those changes had vanished: My toolbars went back to their original configurations. What can I do to save the changes?

The problem may be with your Normal.dot template file. That file not only stores your default document formats, it also remembers your toolbar design. Word’s default is to automatically remember any changes in Normal.dot , but in your case it somehow apparently was changed and you’re probably getting this message every time you close Word:

If you failed to click on Yes in that message, that would explain the disappearance of your toolbar changes. To reset the default so Normal.dot returns to automatic save, click on Tools , Options , the Save tab and remove the check next to Prompt to save Normal template .

T he other possibility is that you’re working on a network and your Normal.dot resides somewhere out of your control. If so, check with your network administrator.