Question: When I use my computer to start Microsoft Word 2007, the system presents the message, “Word automatically saved changes to the Normal document template. Do you want to load it?” What should I do?

Answer: This is one of those annoyances that Microsoft Word is known for. The primary cause of this error is when something happens that crashes Microsoft Word while it is running. For example, you could be typing in Word 2007 and the – for no apparent reason – a window comes up that tells you that Word has encountered a problem and needs to restart. Sometimes Word actually restarts, but sometimes it doesn’t. Regardless, when you start Word the next time, you get the dreaded, pesky message telling you that your Normal template has changed. While it’s conceivable that this could be a problem caused by a virus or by spyware, most of the time the problem is just that Word has crashed. In any event, you probably should run a check for viruses, malware, and spyware just to be sure.

In the question, ths problem occurred with Word 2007, but this error is a classic that has been common to versions of Microsoft Word for many years. This usually happens when people really didn’t change Normal.dot. The easiest and most effective way to solve this problem is to:

1. Close Word 2007
2. Search for all files on your computer called Normal.dot or Normal.dotm. Delete them. Keep in mind that if you actually did make changes to Normal.dot, you are going to lose them.
3. Start Microsoft Word. Word will automatically create a new Normal.dot file for you.