Special Edition Using® Microsoft® Office Word 2003

The Normal Template: Crucial to All Documents

No matter which template you choose for a specific document, one template is always open: the Normal template, stored as Normal.dot in Word 2003's template folder. Although the Normal template doesn't include any text, it does include the following:

• Word's built-in AutoText entries for letters and other business documents as covered in Chapter 9.

• The 90-plus built-in Word styles covered in Chapter 10.

As you work, your new styles, AutoText entries, macros, and many other customizations are stored in the Normal template, unless you deliberately choose to save them elsewhere. Therefore, the longer you work with Word, the more valuable your Normal.dot file is likely to become.

CAUTION

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