As Stefan says, this means you haven't actually opened the Normal template for editing. If you have found Normal.dotm in Windows Explorer and just double-clicked on it, then you will have gotten a new blank document based on the Normal template because the
default action for .dotm and .dotx (template) files is New. You would have to right-click on the file and choose
Open. But here's another way to easily open and edit the Normal template:
In Word, press Alt+F11; the Visual Basic Editor opens. Press Ctrl+G to activate the Immediate window. In that window, type
NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument
and press Enter. Normal opens, but note that it may not be on top of all windows. You can close the Visual Basic Editor. Make the desired changes to the Normal file, and then save and close it. If the changes you have made have not been recognized as changes
(the Undo button is not activated), press Spacebar, then Backspace to "dirty" the file, thus ensuring that the template will actually be saved.