{"id":160,"date":"2018-02-27T09:22:33","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T09:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.remorepair.com\/blog\/?p=160"},"modified":"2018-02-27T09:22:33","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T09:22:33","slug":"how-to-fix-word-cannot-open-the-existing-global-template-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.remorepair.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-word-cannot-open-the-existing-global-template-error\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix Word Cannot Open the existing Global Template Error"},"content":{"rendered":"

From one of the Microsoft\u2019s forum user,<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently downloaded Office 2016 on my Mac. At first, no problems. Recently, though every time I open Word or when I exit off I get prompted with \u2018Word Cannot Open the Existing Global Template. (Normal.dotm)\u2019 or \u2018Do you want to replace the existing Normal.dotm\u2019 or \u2018Changes have been made that affect the global template.Do you want to save those changes?\u2019 I haven’t changed anything. I’ve tried various solutions to this problem but none have worked.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve been having this problem in the past few days on my Mac.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, you may encounter with the above kind of circumstance if you are a Mac user and using Microsoft Word 2016 on that particular machine. As it is mentioned in the situation, the error \u2018Word cannot open the existing Global Template. (Normal.Dotm)\u2019 when you try to open MS Office application or while closing the same. If you are seeing this error when trying to open Office 2016 then you won\u2019t be able to open the files successfully.<\/p>\n

You can also see variations of this error message. Some examples of these variant error messages are \u201cDo you want to replace the existing Normal.dotm\u201d or \u201cChanges have been made that affect the global template. Do you want to save those changes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cause for the error \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Normal.dotm is a template which is used as the basis for creating new blank documents. If you are seeing this message, then the most likely scenario is that the Normal.dotm are corrupted.<\/p>\n

Solution #1: Delete Normal.dotm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the most likely cause of the error is corrupt Normal.dotm, deleting the corrupted file resolves the issue. Microsoft Office 2016 looks for this specific file every time you open the Microsoft Office. If the Microsoft Office can\u2019t find the Normal.dotm file, then it creates a new one automatically. So, simply delete the corrupt file and it will automatically be recreated the next time you start Microsoft Office. To do this, follow the steps given below:<\/p>\n