Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2022 March 4

= March 4 =

Word Restart Blows Away normal.dotm
This question is about Word styles and how they are maintained in the normal.dotm0 file.

If I have been using Word, and it is stopped and restarted, either because power was cycled, or it crashed, or for any other reason, when Word is restarted, it determines that changes were made to the normal.dotm file, and asks whether to load them. Regardless of whether I answer Yes or No, it says that it was unable to load the normal.dotm file; it then resets the normal.dotm file to the default with four styles. That is, it throws away all of the styles that I have defined. I have all of my styles in a document, so I can open the document and copy the styles into Normal, so that is a nuisance rather than a catastrophe; but it is a nuisance.

I asked about this problem about two months ago, and was advised to re-install Word. I can't re-install just Word, but I could and did re-install Office 365. I have Windows 10, and a Dell that is not eligible for an upgrade to Windows 11. I now have the following questions:
 * 1. Does anyone have any specific questions about the problem that I can try to answer here?
 * 2. Is there another Q-and-A forum, outside Wikipedia, where I might be more likely to get an answer to this question?
 * 3. Does Microsoft provide any sort of technical support for complex problems such as this?
 * 4. Does anyone have any other thoughts?

Robert McClenon (talk) 16:45, 4 March 2022 (UTC)


 * The advice I see on various sites is (in all its many over-complicated forms) essentially to delete normal.dotm and allow Word to recreate it. It's kept in the folder %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates and may well have stayed there all through the process of reinstalling Office 365. (Possibly you should delete the entire folder.) Superuser is a forum for this kind of thing. Card Zero  (talk) 17:24, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
 * User:Card Zero - Thank you. I moved all the files in the Templates folder to a temporary folder, except that the email profile template wouldn't move or delete because it was in use.  So I exited Outlook, and then deleted the Templates folder.  Something, probably Word, has re-created the Templates folder, but it is currently empty.  I am using Word and Excel normally, and will see what happens next.  Robert McClenon (talk) 03:55, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

Windows Network Drive Question
A few months ago, I asked about setting up networking between two computers in my apartment. Both are running Windows 10. I was then able to share some of the folders on the C: drive on my desktop computer so that I can access them from my laptop computer. Mostly, this works fine. I can define folders on the C: drive of my desktop computer as shared, and can view them on the desktop computer, and can edit documents in them. It is the editing of documents, of course, that is what I want to do, to work on a document when I am seated at the laptop computer rather than the desktop computer. The problem is that there is one folder on my desktop computer that I can't effectively share. That is, I can turn on sharing, when I am sitting at the desktop. Then I can do a Map Network Drive when I am at the laptop computer, and I can see the name of the folder, but I can't view its contents. All that I see is an empty folder. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what the problem might be? Is there anything I should try? Robert McClenon (talk) 16:45, 4 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Might it be a problem with the permissions? The folder may be readable by owner but the files inside it might not be readable by anyone other than owner. I don't know specifically how Windows handles contained permissions, but that's where I'd check first. WhoAteMyButter  ( 📨talk │ 📝contribs ) 04:58, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Only load collapsed content when expanded
Hello, over at the wikispecies sandbox here, there is a collapsed wikitable, the content of which, however, seems to be loading even before one clicks on 'Expand', as it momentarily flashes up when one loads the page; my understanding was that you can make it so that the content will only load when you click 'Expand'; how do I achieve this? Thank you, Maculosae tegmine lyncis (talk) 17:56, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I am not aware of a Mediawiki feature allowing load-on-demand, but this is not a topic I am familiar with. Perhaps the people at Village pump (technical) or Tech can be more of a help. --Lambiam 09:48, 5 March 2022 (UTC)

Multi region blu-ray player?
Is an LG BP350 HD-1080p blu-ray/DVD player in the UK multi region and can it play NTSC discs? 86.130.70.37 (talk) 22:00, 4 March 2022 (UTC)


 * The region code to which it is set, printed on the back of the device, will depend on where the product is sold. If you buy it from amazon.co.uk it will be set to 2. According to the owner's manual, when the player plays an NTSC disc, the image is output as an NTSC signal. So on a PAL TV, you will then see a distorted image unless you insert an NTSC to PAL converter. --Lambiam 09:31, 5 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Most current TV's can display both PAL and NTSC with no problems. 212.178.135.35 (talk) 12:01, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

On the back of my device, the region code is set to 2 & B and it was made in Indonesia by LG Electornics in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. 86.130.70.37 (talk) 20:13, 5 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Most DVD players can be set to multi-region. Just google DVD hacks. (Other search engines are available.)--Shantavira|feed me 09:33, 6 March 2022 (UTC)