Word keeps prompting me that changes have been made to the global template - have tried all steps listed but none work

Hello Andrew,

Take a backup and rename normal.dotm from the following location and verify the status.

Browse to the location below and Rename the Normal.dotm:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I hope the above information helps. Let us know if you need further assistance.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying.  What do you mean by "take a backup"?    What should I rename the normal.dotm template to?  Should I keep it in the same directory?  

Thanks for your help.

"Take a backup" just means to make a copy of the original Normal.dotm file, so you can restore it if the procedure doesn't solve the problem. That file contains many of the customizations you may have made in the program, and you probably don't want to lose those.

It doesn't really matter what you rename the file to, as long as it isn't "Normal.dotm". I'd suggest "Normal_Old.dotm", but you could name it "Maybe Buggy Normal Template.old" and the result would be the same. The point of this is that, if Word runs and doesn't find a file named Normal.dotm in the Templates folder, it will use all its default settings from within the program; and when you exit from that session, it will write a new, factory-default Normal.dotm into the Templates folder.

If doing this makes the prompts stop, then you can use the Organizer to copy any custom styles and/or macros from the old template to the new one. To open the Organizer, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S to open the Styles pane; click the Manage Styles button (third from left at the bottom of the pane); and click the Import/Export button. In the Organizer, click the Close File button on the left side, and click it again when it says Open File. Select the old template (the new template is already displayed on the right side). Select any styles you want on the left, and click the Copy button. Repeat for macros on the Macro Project Items tab of the dialog.

Try starting Word in Safe mode. (Hold down the Ctrl key while starting Word.)

What happens?

Try starting without Add-Ins.

Type the following into the Windows search window in the Start page:

winword.exe /a

Press Enter. If given a choice with the same language, click on it.

These are both diagnostics, not a way to be using Word.

When I started Word in Safe mode, it opened, but without a document.  I opened an existing document, then exited, and did not see the normal template prompt.

Running winword.exe /a opened as normal, and also did not show me a prompt when I exited.

Does this mean there are add-ons somewhere?  If so, I'm having trouble finding them.

Yes, it does appear that you have an addin, or 3rd party program that is making some sort of change to your Word setup.  That you do not have the problem when doing a /a start confirms that the problem is being caused by an addin.

For example, a while back on my company computer I was getting the same message. I too knew that I had not made any changes. It would get the message even if I shut down Word IMMEDIATELY after starting it.  In my case, it turned out that the company was silently installing a new button on the toolbar (Word 2000) without telling us.  It could be that you have something similar happening with a 3rd party program, aka an addin.

Note: even a clean install of Word includes some addins. They shouldn't be causing this issue, so it is probably a 3rd party tool/addin.  For example, many Cannon printers/printer drivers install an addin tool called "Abbyy Fine Reader" which was (which has apparently been fixed).

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fix-microsoft-word-has-stopped-working

How to find out whether any Word Add-ins have been installed

Enable or disable add-ins in Office programs - Support - Office.com

Templates in Microsoft Word  

Are you by any chance using Norton Antivirus? If so, look at this information.

The bulk of the article is written for Word 97 through 2003, and of course all of the user interface descriptions are now out of date. The things that it tells you to look for, though, are the ones you've already tried and not found -- except for Norton.