Invisible Macros (Microsoft Word) (2024)

Do you enjoy customizing Word by adding macros to various menu and toolbar options? If so, you may have noticed that you can't always find your macros when you try to add one to a menu in the Customize dialog box. The macro may be visible in the macro list when you pressAlt+F8, but not in the Customize dialog box.

The most likely cause of this problem is that the macro is not stored in the Normal.dot template, but in a different template. It would be visible in the list of common macros because all "available" macros are listed there by default. It would not be visible in the Customize dialog because only the macros in Normal.Dot are visible there by default.

There are two possible solutions to work around this problem. First, the macro can be moved to the Normal.Dot template file using the Organizer feature in Word. (You get here by clicking Organizer in the Macro dialog box.) The second solution is to make sure that your menu customization is saved in the same template that saves the macro you want. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Select Customize from the Tools menu. This will display the Customize dialog box.
  2. Click on the Assignments tab. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Invisible Macros (Microsoft Word) (1)

    Figure 1.Commands tab of the Customize dialog box.

  4. Select Macros from the Categories list. The right side of the dialog box should display the available macros.
  5. If the macro you want is not visible, use the Save in dropdown to select a different template file. You need to select the one where you know the macro you want is saved.
  6. Make your menu changes as desired.

If you want to know how to use the macros found on this page (or on any other page on theWord tipswebsites), I have prepared a special page that contains useful information.Click here to open the special page in a new browser tab.

Word tipsis your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1911) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

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Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 nonfiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is chairman ofSharon Parq employees, a computer and publishing company.Learn more about Allen...

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Invisible Macros (Microsoft Word) (2024)
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