When you unselect read-only and click apply, you still can't add a comment
until you close and re-open the properties dialog box.

Also, there should be instructions in dialog boxes on how to access the
information on dialog box options. Something like "For information on above
options, right click option and click "what's this." Basic user friendliness.

Dear Barry,

System (and _some_ application) dialog boxes in XP have a little ?
symbol next to the X (close).
Left click that and then click it on the "Option" (control) that you
want explained. It usually works. Though MS coders have been slack on
this recently I have noticed.

Hope that helps.

CreateWindow
http://mymessagetaker.com
The while-you-were-out message program you have been looking for!

Actually, when you think carefully about it, you shouldn't
be able to add a comment to a read-only file at all (it that's
what adding a comment does).

The file is read-only.

Writing a comment to it is a violation of that status.

"Barry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:38C97223-67D8-484C-AF13-(E-Mail Removed)...
> When you unselect read-only and click apply, you still can't add a comment
> until you close and re-open the properties dialog box.
>
> Also, there should be instructions in dialog boxes on how to access the
> information on dialog box options. Something like "For information on above
> options, right click option and click "what's this." Basic user friendliness.

"V Green" wrote:

> Actually, when you think carefully about it, you shouldn't
> be able to add a comment to a read-only file

I'm not sure whether I agree with that or not, but I was saying that I had
UN-selected read-only for the file, then clicked apply, and I still couldn't
leave a comment until I closed and reopened the properties box.

OK, I see. At the time you're applying the comment,
the file is no longer read-only.

I think the behavior you're seeing is hard-coded
into the system, and is just the result of nobody at
MS ever noticing that someone might not like it.

Or, the comment info needs to get flushed to somewhere
(no idea where - are comments stored in the file, or are
they stored locally and just linked to the file??) which does
not happen until you close the dialog.

"Barry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4FCA63E8-BF59-4947-A40B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> "V Green" wrote:
>
> > Actually, when you think carefully about it, you shouldn't
> > be able to add a comment to a read-only file
>
> I'm not sure whether I agree with that or not, but I was saying that I had
> UN-selected read-only for the file, then clicked apply, and I still couldn't
> leave a comment until I closed and reopened the properties box.

"V Green" wrote:
are comments stored in the file, or are
> they stored locally and just linked to the file??) which does
> not happen until you close the dialog.

That's another important issue. I searched the registry for a string from my
comment and didn't find it, so it may be stored in the file. I wouldn't have
thought that. That's dangerous because I may want to send someone a copy of
the file without them seeing my comment.

And I found another bug. If you open the properties of a file that's not
read-only and click in the comment box (I did this to copy the comment so I
could paste it elsewhere) then try to make it read-only, it won't let you. An
box pops up saying:

"Changes to Summary properties could not be saved; access has been denied.
The file may be marked read-only or may be in use by another application."

So, you can copy the comment when the file isn't read-only (you should be
able to copy it to the clipboard even when it is read-only), but if you want
to make it read only too, you have to close and re-open the properties.

"Barry" wrote:

> So, you can copy the comment when the file isn't read-only (you should be
> able to copy it to the clipboard even when it is read-only), but if you want
> to make it read only too, you have to close and re-open the properties.

Oops, I misrepresentated the problem there. You ARE able to copy the comment
and then change the file to read-only without re-opening the properties
(though you do get the useless warning message). The real problem is that if
you change the comment while it's allowed (not read-only) then you can't
change the file to read only unless you re-open properties.

Also, the warning:

"Changes to Summary properties could not be saved; access has been denied.
The file may be marked read-only or may be in use by another application."

appears for a doc file but doesn't appear for a jpg file when selecting
read-only after clicking in the comment field. Inconsistency.

And even though you CAN change the file to read-only after clicking in the
comment box, doing that prevents you from closing the properties box with the
OK button. You have to click the "X" button. And if you actually change the
comment, you can change the file to to read-only, but your comment change is
lost, as the warning says, as well as the OK button not working.

OK, I get this (I think).

Word has supported "comments" as part of its .DOC file structure
from way back. Other apps do this too (AutoCad comes to
mind with .DWG).

I *think* what you're seeing is based on whether or not a specific
TYPE of file supports a Comment field (much like a field in a database).

"Comment" is probably NOT part of the .JPG filespec.

Short version: you can only add Comments to a filetype that NATIVELY
supports it.

"Barry" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6675B262-63A4-4E58-B13B-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Also, the warning:
>
> "Changes to Summary properties could not be saved; access has been denied.
> The file may be marked read-only or may be in use by another application."
>
> appears for a doc file but doesn't appear for a jpg file when selecting
> read-only after clicking in the comment field. Inconsistency.
>
> And even though you CAN change the file to read-only after clicking in the
> comment box, doing that prevents you from closing the properties box with the
> OK button. You have to click the "X" button. And if you actually change the
> comment, you can change the file to to read-only, but your comment change is
> lost, as the warning says, as well as the OK button not working.
>

"V Green" wrote:

> I *think* what you're seeing is based on whether or not a specific
> TYPE of file supports a Comment field (much like a field in a database).
>
> "Comment" is probably NOT part of the .JPG filespec.

Yes, whether I see that error I described may depend on that...


> Short version: you can only add Comments to a filetype that NATIVELY
> supports it.

....but no, I CAN add a comment to the jpg file even though it doesn't cause
the warning if I make it read-only.

Seems like for jpg files (or any files that don't natively support
comments), comments are stored elsewhere and read-only status has no effect
on whether you can edit the comment field. On the other hand, I searched the
registry for a string in the comment field of the jpg file and I didn't find
it.