Margin setting in MS Word 2013

If this is what you see when you start a Blank Document

and you can't move the cursor out of the box, then that is not a text box. It's the single empty paragraph in the Blank Document (which is based on the Normal.dotm template), and the outline is caused by an option to show "text boundaries". The fact that the Margins and other buttons are grayed out in this document indicates that there's a problem in the Normal.dotm template.

When you choose to start a document from the "Single spaced (blank)" item in the File > New page

that new document is based on a different template, so you're just avoiding the problem in Normal.dotm.

However, lots of other things in Word depend on the Normal.dotm template, which is the location where many customization settings are stored. If you don't fix it, you'll eventually have other troubles.

To fix whatever has gone wrong, follow these steps:

• If Word is open, close it.
• On the Windows 8.1 Start screen, click the Search icon in the top right and type Normal.dotm in the box. When the file's name appears below the search box, right-click it and click "Open file location". That will start the File Explorer, open the correct folder, and highlight the Normal.dotm file.
  
• Rename the Normal.dotm file to OldNormal.dotm. (Note: if there are other files with similar names, such as NormalPre.dotm or NormalEmail.dotm, don't do anything to them.)
• Start Word and create a document based on "Blank Document". Verify that the Margin and other buttons work as they should.
• Close Word. Before it shuts down, you may see a message saying "Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dotm. Do you want to save those changes?" Be sure to click the Save button in that message box, which will cause Word to create a new Normal.dotm. If you don't see such a message box, that just means that Word will create the new template without asking (that's an option that may or may not be turned on).

If you have any customized styles or macros in the old Normal.dotm template (now named OldNormal.dotm), you can use the Organizer to copy them to the new Normal.dotm template. You'll find the Organizer button in the dialog that opens from the View > Macros button.