16 November, 2011

Ambiguous name detected: tmp.dde

Guys,

Today I m very happy to write this article, not because I have resolved this issue, not because I have done research on this, not because I did any debugging on this... but the reason behind this is-One of my colleague named “Vinesh Kapoor” has resolved this issue and registers his name by making an entry in the knowledgebase. As I always share the articles to benefit the SharePoint communities so here are the details:

Problem Description: Whenever user tries to open a word document in SharePoint, she get the error "Ambiguous name detected: tmp.dde"

Error message: Ambiguous name detected: tmp.dde

Resolution:
1) Close the entire word document and rename NORMAL.DOTM
2) You will find that under : \Documents and Settings\<your account>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
3) Open a blank word document and close it.
4) Check the location again, you will find that normal.dotm will be created.
5) Ask the user to open the word document from the SharePoint site and it worked fine

Reference to the same, a simple question comes to my mind as what is the function of this NORMAL.DOT file, if this file does not exist on the computer then will it make any difference, can we make changes inside this file, if we make any changes then does it impact the normal functioning of word files???

Questions will be many but let’s try to understand the basics so that we will understand the base functioning.

Here is my analysis:
What is NORMAL.DOT FILE?-The normal.dot file is the default Microsoft Word TEMPLATE. This file is used to store the default settings such as font, font size, content of a file, etc. that is used with each of the Microsoft Word file you open. This can be useful if you find yourself having to adjust the font type, font size, or other setting each time you open Microsoft Word.

How do I modify the normal.dot file?
-Open the normal.dot file and change the settings you wish to adjust. For example, if you want the default font size to be 14 each time you open Microsoft Word open the normal.dot file change the font size to 14 and save the document.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know.I would be more than HAPPY to help you as well as RESOLVES your issues, Thank you J

10 comments:

  1. Hi . I work in support and I must say it is nice to find a place that gives clear and concise answers to problems rather than long winded overblown theories. Keep up the good work.

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  2. Thank you very much for the appreciation note. its really feel good after reading such comments, infact such boosting increases my concentration towards posting my troubleshooting issues. thanks once again :-)

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  3. I must agree, nice resolution.

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  4. Thank you SO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH! This has helped me a lot!

    Shuaib

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  5. Thanks Amol and Vinesh bhai !

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    1. Thank you. Let me know in case of any queries/questions, would be more than happy to help as well as resolves the issues :)

      Delete
  6. works like a charm!

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  7. I dont have Documents and Settings under my C:\ drive.. How else can I access this file ??

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    Replies
    1. It seems that you are using windows 7

      Ok, here is the location that you can check the file- C:\Users\Amol\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Templates

      Please let me know in case of any queries, thanks

      Delete

Your feedback is always appreciated. I will try to reply to your queries as soon as possible- Amol Ghuge

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