I have a window asking: do you want to replace the existing Normal.dotm? what should i do? I'm on OSX 10.7.5 with Office 365 14.3.2 for mac 2011.

BOOM Fixed the issue

So it was some sort of conflict between upgrading from 2011 to 2016.

I simply deleted the "Normal.dotm" that I had defined under "/Users/davidcarrasco/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content.localized/Templates.localized"

Once it's deleted you simply have to reopen word and you don't receie that message anymore. Try it.

I'm thinking it would probably be a good idea to delete Word entirely and reinstall it anyway, but for now it's working.

This error has not disappeared for me. It appears every time I try to close word and prevents it from closing(also preventing shutdowns). I usually use existing files when I use word, so I'm never making changes to Normal.dotm or any other settings. Is there a way I can get this to stop appearing?

Interesting enough I was using Microsoft 2011 for years and had absolutely no problem. It worked flawlessly.

I recently upgraded to Microsoft 2016, and Word is the only one giving me this problem. The very moment I open up word I'm prompted with the message

"Word cannot open the existing global template. (Normal.dotm)"

I haven't made any changes at all. Also, once I create a brand new document and name it test it creates "test.docx". I saved it to my desktop, and closed Word. But now I can't open it. I feel that there must be some sort of conflict because I didn't delete 2011 version before I installed 2016.

This issue is extensively spoken about in other forums. If I can't find a simple solution I'm going to delete Word entirely and try to start from scratch to see if this fixes the problem. So far this is what I am experiencing.

Thanks for this update. I remember a similar issue with an earlier version of word, but this 2016 bug is tiresome, particularly as it made it tricky to open attachments etc. I deleted the Normal.dotm template and sure enough the new one that Word automatically replaced it with works fine now and files open ok.

I'm so glad that I found your solution, thanks for posting.

Hey! This thing was giving me trouble too, and it was this thread that helped me figure it out. That said, I found the directions a bit confusing, so I figured I'd offer another translation of the fix. So...

This solution is for folks like me who are barely computer literate.

I just went into Finder. Clicked on the search bar. Looked up both the "Normal.dotm" and the "~normal.dotm" documents that showed up. Clicked on them and dragged them into the trash. Then I emptied my trash. Then I force quit word. Then I opened word again and, to my gratification, observed everything was fixed.

I hope this was helpful. Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread.

Take care!

Normal.dotm is the template used by Word for a new letter. If you changed anything save it, if you didn't, don't save it.

That is not what I said.

Normal.dotm is a template, not a .doc file. It is the template that every new document is based upon, IF you changed any of the template settings (font size or other attributes) then you will be prompted to save the changes.

Did you? (or is this an old Windows Template)

Don't worry about it.

This worked! Thank you for the helpful info.

Nice one, thanks! This has been bugging me for ages... If you look back in that directory it just creates a new Normal.dotm when you close Word.

Worked a charm. Legend.

Yeah, that did the trick. ✅

Thanks a bunch. It was so annoying!