I am still using Autocad 2011. When I open a new drawing and/or create a new layout tab, there is no dashed line indicating paper border and also no default viewport. Is this normal? What do I need to do to make this border appear in paper space?

Aren't those choices made in Options?  Can't recall which tab at the moment.  I'm not at my CAD computer.

It's in Options - Display - Layout elements.

You are correct heinsite.

Thank you! I found it. The strange thing is I don't remember ever changing the settings.

Things tend to change mysteriously from time to time.  If you try to convince yourselft that figuring out what went wrong is a learning opportunity it'll be easier on the sanity bone.

It is a known fact that some poorly written lisp routines will change user settings such as system variables but it seems odd the kinds of changes you have seen are not normally targeted.