Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 25210	2002-09-28 11:27:00	Opening files in Office with XP	Jester (13)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
84189	2002-09-28 11:27:00	Hi I use MS Office 97 on my XP home PC. Often when I open a file it says something like the file is being used by <my initials>, create a copy? This doesn't always happen. I am the administator on this PC, there are no other user or guest accounts. Word wasn't open before I opened the file and no one else was using the file elsewhere. I feel it has something to do with my registered name on the Office installation, which may differ from my XP administrator account name. If so I guess I will have to change the named registered in the Office installation... how? Any ideas? J. :D	Jester (13)
84190	2002-09-28 11:45:00	Nothing to do with your registration name. Word creates a temporary file when you edit a document. If that temporary file is for some reason not automatically deleted when the document closes, it will supply the information when it is reopened that suggests it is open still under the previous session. Temp document filenames start with the "~" tilde character	hagrid (1972)
84191	2002-09-28 11:47:00	It might possibly be due to a corrupt normal . dot file . Try closing Word and renaming normal . dot to normal . old then reopen Word or the file and see if it happens again .	Susan B (19)
84192	2002-09-28 13:11:00	Thanks for the ideas . It is weird, I have been playing around a bit and it it only seems to effect those documents I created before I installed XP and transferred back onto this PC, or documents emailed to me . If I create a new doc now for example, it opens fine . I deleted the normal . dot file and it re-created as usual (but I'm not getting the usual error message when that file is corrupt . . . ) . I'll monitor it and see what else happens . Thanks agian you two :) J .	Jester (13)
84193	2002-09-28 23:33:00	How did you transfer the docs back to the PC? If you used a CDR then they will be "read only" now, and until you change the attribute you could expect a similar message.	godfather (25)
84194	2002-09-29 00:53:00	godfather is on to it I think. That was what I was thinking reading your post. Check that the files are not read only. G P	Graham Petrie (449)
84195	2002-09-29 01:15:00	I transferred files to another HDD, then after reformatting put the second HDD in and transferred them back. I have looked at the properties and they do not have the read only box ticked, and to be sure selected them all and made sure read-only was left clear. Most have Archive ticked, however. This seems to also be a cause of my problem. What does Archive mean (I assume it means that these files would be included in a back-up?). Would this affect opening them? If I de-select Archive they seem to open without the warning. Thankyou all so far for the responses. :D	Jester (13)
84196	2002-09-29 06:24:00	I've always thought Archive means that the files aren't used very often and get relegated to the slower parts of the hard drive during a defrag to enable the everyday files to be accessed faster. It would be strange if that has something to do with your problem. I was sitting here nodding away at the first suggestion of the temp files being the problem, but if you haven't found that, well... I dunno?	Susan B (19)
84197	2002-09-29 08:54:00	When a file is created or modified, the archive bit is then set until a process comes along to clear it . The process is usually a backup program but can be a copy executable (DOS XCOPY for example) or a file attribute management tool . Not sure why Word is interpreting this as the file being in use, but if that works, dont fight it!	godfather (25)
84198	2002-09-29 10:53:00	As I understand it, the archive bit is purely to let backup programs know whether to back up the file or not....should have no effect on your ability to read or edit. Absolutely nothing to do with rights/permissions.	Jock (2020)
1