Author: Jenny Flatoue

Many users have been using the latest Office 2016. With all the new features, users have also been facing some issues working on Office 2016. One of the many problems is that users were unable to edit existing Word document on Office 2016. Well, this problem is not as big as you interpret it to be, as there are ways by which you can fix it.

What can you do if you are unable to edit Word 2016 document?

Here are some of the fixes you can try out to resolve the issue:

• Disable document protection

If your Word file is password protected, then you cannot edit it. Suppose you don’t want to enter the password every time you access the document, then you have to disable the file protection and delete the password.

• Open Word 2016 file
• Go to the Developer tab (if you don’t have the Developer tab, then go to File – Options – Customize Ribbon – Developer)
• Go to Document Protection in the Protection group
• Navigate to the bottom and click Stop Protection
• Now enter the password for the Word doc, and click OK 

• Check if Office 2016 is activated

Another reason you are unable to edit Word 2016 file could be when Office 2016 trial is expired. Many users who didn’t have Office 365 downloaded the Office 2016 trial for a month. So after a month, the trial package will expire. So if you have downloaded the free trial, then make sure you buy Office 365 subscription.

• Disable Add-ins

Corrupt add-ins can cause problems in Office. So you have to disable the add-ins once and for all. As you don’t know which add-in is creating the problem, you need to disable them completely.

• Open Word 2016, go to File – Options
• Click Add-Ins, then disable all the add-ins
• Now restart the program and run without any add-in

You can start installing the add-ins one by one to check which one is causing the problem. Even after uninstalling add-ins, you still are not able to edit Word doc, then install all the add-ins and find another fix for the problem.

Reinstalling programs is a popular troubleshooting method. So you can reinstall Office 2016 to see if it works. Sometimes, if the Word file is corrupted, you won’t be able to edit it. Under such a situation, you can use Word Repair tool to repair Office 2016 Word doc to rid the corruption and work with the file as usual.

From one of the Microsoft’s forum user,

“I recently downloaded Office 2016 on my Mac. At first, no problems. Recently, though every time I open Word or when I exit off I get prompted with ‘Word Cannot Open the Existing Global Template. (Normal.dotm)’ or ‘Do you want to replace the existing Normal.dotm’ or ‘Changes have been made that affect the global template.Do you want to save those changes?’ I haven’t changed anything. I’ve tried various solutions to this problem but none have worked.

I’ve been having this problem in the past few days on my Mac.”

Well, you may encounter with the above kind of circumstance if you are a Mac user and using Microsoft Word 2016 on that particular machine. As it is mentioned in the situation, the error ‘Word cannot open the existing Global Template. (Normal.Dotm)’ when you try to open MS Office application or while closing the same. If you are seeing this error when trying to open Office 2016 then you won’t be able to open the files successfully.

You can also see variations of this error message. Some examples of these variant error messages are “Do you want to replace the existing Normal.dotm” or “Changes have been made that affect the global template. Do you want to save those changes?”

Cause for the error –

Normal.dotm is a template which is used as the basis for creating new blank documents. If you are seeing this message, then the most likely scenario is that the Normal.dotm are corrupted.

Solution #1: Delete Normal.dotm

Since the most likely cause of the error is corrupt Normal.dotm, deleting the corrupted file resolves the issue. Microsoft Office 2016 looks for this specific file every time you open the Microsoft Office. If the Microsoft Office can’t find the Normal.dotm file, then it creates a new one automatically. So, simply delete the corrupt file and it will automatically be recreated the next time you start Microsoft Office. To do this, follow the steps given below:

• Close Microsoft Office
• Press Command + Shift + G keys to open the Go To Folder window
• Type Macintosh HD/Users/you/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/and press Enter
• Locate a file named dotm and select it
• Press Command and Delete key (Command + Delete) to delete the file

If you find multiple normal.dotm files or a ~normal.dotm file, then deletes those too. Then on opening Microsoft Office make sure that everything should be fine.

Important: If you can’t find the normal.dotm file at the location given in step 3 then enters the location ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates and look for the normal.dotm file in there.

“Pro tip: If you are a Mac user and encountering the error ‘Word couldn’t create the Word file’ on MS Office Word, then you make use of Remo Repair Word Software and easily fix the issue.”

Solution #2: Update Microsoft Office Application

Make sure you download and install the latest updates by Microsoft Office. The latest updates have resolved the issues for a lot of users. Follow these steps in order to update MS Office:

• Open Microsoft Office
• Click Help then select Check for Updates. Note that if you can’t see, check for Updates option, scroll down and click Microsoft_AutoUpdate to download the Microsoft AutoUpdate. Once downloaded, run the downloaded file and the Check for Updates option should be available
• Click Check for updates and follow any additional on-screen instructions

Once the Office is updated, you should be good to go.

Note: Any changes that you make to Normal.dotm will be applied to documents that you create in the future.

You might have seen that your Word 2016 crashes upon opening an old document in Windows 10. Word 2016 application shows such unusual behavior on Windows 10 due to various issues. Here are some easy methods which can help you out to tackle the issue.

Fix 1: Disable Protected View

Enabled Protected View is the main reason why your Word 2016 crashes while opening.  Hence, it is better to disable it to open Word without any glitches. Soon after disabling Protected View open old document using Word 2016 to verify whether Protected View is the reason for a crash or not.  Do as follows to disable protected view:

• Go to Word application and press File tab
• Then, direct to Options > Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings
• Now, you need to click on Protected View from left-side of the screen and uncheck the check-boxes under Protected View
• After unchecking, reopen old Word document

Still, Word crashes while opening Word document? Then, Protected View is not an issue for the crash. Hence, try out the second method.

Fix 2: Unblock-File Type

The word might be crashing while opening old document as it is blocked. So unblock document types that you want to open. For that, follow the procedure mentioned below-

• In Word, select File tab
• Then, go to Options followed by Trust Center
• Next, click on Trust Center Settings and then File Block settings
• And, uncheck the document types that you want to open and hit OK button

If your Word application still crashes while opening an old document, then try out the next fix.

Fix 3: Repair Office Applications

• Go to Control Panel and then Programs and Features
• Pick Microsoft Office and then click on Change
• From the next window, choose Repair button
• Follow the instructions shown on the screen

After completion of successful repair, go to old document and try to reopen it.  If it doesn’t work, reinstall your Office application.

Note: Sometimes, Word 2016 crashes on Windows 10, if the old document which you are trying to open is corrupted.  Hence, fix Office 2016 Word file which is corrupted using Remo Repair Word tool.