Recently, I had to install from the beginning the whole Microsoft Office in my MacBook because I messed up with the Normal.dotm and then my office couldn’t work with the EndNote. Now that I’ve learnt a lesson, I would like to give some general advice.

1. First of all, DO NOT create a new Normal.dotm from a blank document and replace your default Normal.dotm document. This might have worked with previous versions of the Word but it doesn’t seem to work with office 2008 (at least in my laptop). That was my mistake the first time and the result was disaster! The word couldn’t communicate with the Endnote X2, so I couldn’t add and edit any reference. Damn you Microsoft!

2. If you want to edit the Normal.dotm, DO NOT open it directly from its location. Usually, the Normal.dotm is placed in /users/your_username/ Library/ Applications/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm. If you open it directly from that location the office will open a new blank document, so whatever changes you make, the normal file will not be affected.

One correct way to edit your Normal is the following:
Open the Microsoft Word and then go to the Menu: File->Open… browse for the Normal.dotm and open it. The file opens with the name Normal.dotm so the changes you make will be saved there.
Modify the Normal and then just press the save button. Voila, the next time you open a new blank document in Word, it will have the desired template.

If you just want to edit the fonts, size, paragraph and these changes to be saved in the default format, you can follow this alternative path:
In a blank document press the button for the toolbox (Formating Pallete) to appear. Then you can edit any Style by selecting Modify Style.. (this option is in the drop down menu of each style) . In the window that appears make the changes you want and don’t forget to check the box that says “Add to template”. Then the changes will be automatically saved in your Normal.dotm.

However, if you want to add page numbers, default header etc in your template you’ll have to go with the first way.