I have no Normal.dot - Word 2003

I have done recent computer upgrades to my Sony VAIO and Dell Latitude C600 laptop. I loaded WinXP Pro, MS Office 2003 Pro, Acrobat 7.0 Pro, Norton AntiVirus 2005, etc. We have 3 user accounts on each. After normal hiccups were ironed out, we discovered the following, on both machines and on all 3 accounts per machine:

Make a customization to Word - add a button to a toolbar, change margins or fonts, etc. - and it doesn't stick. The next time we launch Word, it's back to its (original) defaults. Word seems to behave properly in all other regards (that we notice).

So the problem seems to be with Normal.dot not being updated - according to MS help and website, help boards like this one, google searches. Lo-and-behold I discover that we have NO Normal.dot files on the systems.

In every case that I've investigated, and as I have done many times in the past, the recommended solution to this problem is to delete the Normal.dot, and Word will create a new one. In this case, none is being created under any circumstance.

So being a smart guy, I installed an old pre-update Normal.dot (actually a Word 2000 template), and put it in the right place. What I notice is this:

1. Word opens. A temp file is created called ~Normal.dot as expected.
2. Do some Word stuff - add a button, change default font, etc.
3. Save and quit.
4. The ~Normal.dot temp file disappears, but the Normal.dot is not changed, it has its original creation/modification date. No change.

I have also tried to force creation of a Normal.dot by saving it as a template. (I know this can have problems, but wanted to try anyway.) When I try to write the file, however, I get an error dialog that says:

"Word cannot give a document the same name as an open document. Type a different name for the document you want to save. (C:\Documents and Settings\..\Normal.dot)"

So it thinks there is a Normal.dot in my templates. I navigate there, and there is none. I search the entire disk, looking for hidden files too, and there are none on the system.

So it looks like Word is unable to write the Normal.dot template. I have checked for startup items (none), looked for Macros (just AutoClose), COM Add-ins (there are none), etc. I've checked that the File Save locations are in the right location (they are).

Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong? One board implied that Acrobat 7 may be an issue, but how? How about NAV?

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