Missing macros in Word 2016

See if you can find a template named prenormal.dotm.  if you find it, it will be your old normal.dotm

You should now open what was the old normal.dotm in Word and saveas with the same name and some location to update the file to Word 2016 format.

Incidentally, it was not necessary to move the file in order to rename it. You could have simply closed Word and then renamed it in situ. Or if you wanted to keep a copy, right click, drag and copy to the same folder and you would have got normalpre-copy.dotm

Hi,

I have just read this message stream, but have not yet upgraded to Microsoft Office 2016.  What do I need to do to prepare for the upgrade if I want to retain all my macros?

Many thanks

Paula

Make a backup copy of Normal.dotm (assuming all your macros are stored in that template) and put it in some other folder, or better on an external drive or USB stick. After the update, copy that backup into the Templates folder to overwrite the one created by the update.

As a bit of unrequested advice :-) you shouldn't store any macros in Normal.dotm that are important enough to keep permanently. Instead, store them in a separate template (*.dotm) that you put into the folder %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup. Those macros will automatically be available in all documents, just like ones in Normal.dotm; but they won't be subject to overwriting, deletion, or damage the way the ones in Normal.dotm are.

Thank you Jay.  I will have a look at this.

Best wishes

Paula

Make a backup copy of Normal.dotm (assuming all your macros are stored in that template) and put it in some other folder, or better on an external drive or USB stick. After the update, copy that backup into the Templates folder to overwrite the one created by the update.

As a bit of unrequested advice :-) you shouldn't store any macros in Normal.dotm that are important enough to keep permanently. Instead, store them in a separate template (*.dotm) that you put into the folder %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup. Those macros will automatically be available in all documents, just like ones in Normal.dotm; but they won't be subject to overwriting, deletion, or damage the way the ones in Normal.dotm are.

Hello,
What's the best way to go about creating and placing the new macro template in the Startup folder?

Starting with a blank document, save it as a macro enabled template (*.dotm) in the Word Startup folder, which will be located at 

%appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup

which is a shortcut for 

C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP

Note that the AppData folder is a hidden folder, so to be able to see it, you will need to turn on the display of hidden files and folders in the File Explorer.

After saving the template in that folder, create your macros in it and then save it and restart Word which will cause it to be loaded as an Add-in.  The macros in it  will then be available for use in all documents.