Is your normal.dotm located in its default location in C drive?

Close any open documents (including blank/empty ones), then use File-Open and select the normal.dot template.

Close word the best you can

 Click on start->run.
· Type %appdata% and click ok.
· Go to Microsoft->templates folder and delete Normal.dotm.
· Restart word

normal.dot will be re-created and should be editable.  If you cant find the file, you may have to turn on show hidden files/folders

... do you really need to modify normal.dot directly? For most font, paragraph, page and style settings you can apply the settings in a blank document and use the SAVE DEFAULT option, which will update normal.dot.

The safest way to edit the Normal template would be to work on a copy, and then replace the active version. In Windows Explorer, find the Normal.dotm file (per WyoComputers above) and make a copy of it. Edit the copy as needed and exit from Word. Delete (or rename) the original Normal.dotm and then rename your edited version to Normal.dotm.

If you tend to collect styles and macros in your Normal template, it is a good idea to back up the template fairly regularly. If the Normal template becomes corrupted, it can be deleted and Word will create a new one with the "factory" defaults -- but of course you'll lose any modifications you may have made by editing or by KCTS's excellent point.

The Organizer dialog allows you to copy elements from one template to another, providing a handy way of managing a collection of styles and macros. (The dialog is a bit hidden: Developer ribbon > Document template > Oragnizer...)

I've not had time to review any of your answers until today and will try some of them out.

Jackie man:

I assume it’s located in the default location.  Here’s the path:
C:\Users\gmckim\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\ Normal.dotm & NormalEmail.dotm

Is this correct?

PS  signing off for now and will revisit this in the next few days

I've been too busy the past weeks to work on this and am hoping to get to it this weekend at which time I'll update the my post and/or accept a solution.

With the exception of the solution presented by EricFletcher, all of the other solutions are things I already know how to do and/or don't work.  

EricFletcher:  I used your suggestions on multiple occasions prior to posting this question and I've successfully made edits to my Normal.dotm file with one exception:

The default setting in Word for Review is "Final: Show Markup".  I'm trying to change it to "Final".  I've made this change done countless times both in Word docs, Normal.dotm, and copies of Normal.dotm I've created then used to overwrite the default Normal.dotm.  Nothing works.  Word always defaults to "Final: Show Markup".

Any ideas?

This is a state within Word, and not associated with a template. However, you can change it by including something like the following in an AutoOpen macro within your Normal.dotm template:

ActiveDocument.ShowRevisions = True

Refer to this Microsoft article for information about the .ShowRevision property.