Is it ok to print a Word document from a USB flash drive?

[Larry]

Based on what is said in the groups, that it is not safe to work on a
document on a removable medium, but that we should copy the document to the
hard disk and work on it there, I suppose the answer to my question will be
no. But I just wanted to be sure.

 

[JoAnn Paules]

No because to print it, it was to be opened.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Stan Brown]

Based on what is said in the groups, that it is not safe to work on a
document on a removable medium, but that we should copy the document to the
hard disk and work on it there, I suppose the answer to my question will be
no. But I just wanted to be sure.

First, you absolutely *can* print a document from a flash drive.
Either open it and print it, or right-click on it in Explorer and
select Print.

Second, I don't know what's up with that "not safe". Editing a
document on a floppy or a removable USB drive is no more or less safe
than editing it on your computer's hard drive. There's the obvious
caveat: you have to keep track of where the removable medium is, but
other than that...

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

You can probably get away with it as long as printing is all that you do.
That is no editing or saving.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

But it still has to be opened, and this creates temp files. Probably not a
major issue, but still a consideration. Some versions of Word, if fully
patched, probably won't permit it, anyway. I haven't updated Office 2003 in
over a year; I know I should, but for now I'm not experiencing any problems,
and I keep seeing reports of weird effects of the updates, so I've dragged
my feet. I do know that inability to open a file from a removable drive
seems to be one effect of recent updates.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Second, I don't know what's up with that "not safe". Editing a
document on a floppy or a removable USB drive is no more or less safe
than editing it on your computer's hard drive.

Actually, Stan, this is incorrect when it comes to Word. Every time a
document is opened and edited, Word creates a lot of temporary files in
the same location as the original file. On a small floppy disk that runs
out of space quickly, this is just about guaranteed to cause corruption
sooner or later, as the files cannot be created or closed properly. A
bigger flash/USB drive is less risky, but corruption still seems to be
reported more frequently when editing from a USB drive than on the hard
drive.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Rubbish. Please don't encourage using REM media with Word.

Terry

 

[Aalaan]

The answer is certainly no. Word makes use of various temporary files as it
works (excuse pun). Saving to portable media is invariably too slow and
files get easily corrupted. You *may* be OK loading *from* but why not just
get into the habit of copying to the main hard drive and always working from
there?

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 10:33:33 -0700 from Daiya Mitchell

Actually, Stan, this is incorrect when it comes to Word. Every time a
document is opened and edited, Word creates a lot of temporary files in
the same location as the original file.

"A lot of temporary files"? I've never seen more than one (when
editing a Word doc that's on my desktop). Are you sure there are "a
lot"?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

OK, you only see just one file (read "container"), but who knows what it
contians and it can take a lot of space.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

There is one file for sure (the ~$ owner file), but there are frequently
also numerous ~$wrlxxx.tmp files, one for each save (or each save after the
first if you are creating *.wbk backup files). I'm never sure why these are
created--it may have to do with copying and pasting--but each is a complete
copy of a previous saved version of the document, so if your file is quite
large, each of these will be about the same size. They are (normally)
deleted when you close the document.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:10:40 -0500 from Suzanne S. Barnhill

There is one file for sure (the ~$ owner file), but there are frequently
also numerous ~$wrlxxx.tmp files, one for each save (or each save after the
first if you are creating *.wbk backup files). I'm never sure why these are
created--it may have to do with copying and pasting--but each is a complete
copy of a previous saved version of the document, so if your file is quite
large, each of these will be about the same size. They are (normally)
deleted when you close the document.

Suzanne, a request:

If you're going to put your quoted material after your signature,
please don't use the "-- " signature delimiter. That prevents
standard-conforming newsreaders, like Gravity, from quoting the
previous material, and users must laboriously copy/paste to preserve
context. Thanks!

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:10:40 -0500 from Suzanne S. Barnhill

There is one file for sure (the ~$ owner file), but there are frequently
also numerous ~$wrlxxx.tmp files, one for each save (or each save after the
first if you are creating *.wbk backup files). I'm never sure why these are
created--it may have to do with copying and pasting--but each is a complete
copy of a previous saved version of the document, so if your file is quite
large, each of these will be about the same size. They are (normally)
deleted when you close the document.

I understand now. I guess the creation of the extra files depends on
particular work patterns. Either I've not worked in that particular
way, or more likely when I have I wasn't paying attention to
temporary files.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:10:40 -0500 from Suzanne S. Barnhill


I understand now. I guess the creation of the extra files depends on
particular work patterns. Either I've not worked in that particular
way, or more likely when I have I wasn't paying attention to
temporary files.

Mostly I only see this in action if Word crashes on me, when it leaves
behind several "Word Work D_XXXX" files, as they are labeled on the Mac.
But it's kinda neat sometimes if I have the relevant folder open in the
background--when I hit Save I can see Word closing 6-7 temp files in the
folder.

I'm avoiding grading, so here's a KB article on it:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/89247/en-us

I *think* it supports my belief that the temp files are used to maintain
the Undo list.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I think you're right about the Undo list. I rarely see the .tmp files
because I have Word's Open and Save dialogs set to display only All Word
Documents, but when a long document becomes sluggish, I figure it may have
to do with the number of files open, so I close and reopen it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I would imagine this would be a setting in your newsreader. If I *didn't*
use the signature delimiter, others would complain. And *many* (including
me) would complain if I bottom-posted.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Larry]

Well, I was asking for a friend who moves back and forth between computers
and likes to do that. I personally never work on a removable medium, having
absorbed that lesson from the Word newsgroups over the years. Also, I did
wonder if the USB flash drive since it is so large would be different from a
floppy in this regard.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In this case, it appears that perhaps the speed of transfer might be an
issue rather than the size of the drive. Not to mention the speed with which
the user removes the drive (i.e., like a floppy, if it's removed before Word
gets through with it, you'll end up with garbage).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

No, it's a pretty universal rule in email clients, part of whatever
specs govern the web. The dash-dash-space is designed to cut off
everything after it, which, if everyone were bottom posting, would
nicely prevent any sigs from building up. It doesn't work well with
top-posting.

Of course, 90% of the time you are the last word on a question, and it
doesn't matter.

 

[LurfysMa]

The answer is certainly no. Word makes use of various temporary files as it
works (excuse pun). Saving to portable media is invariably too slow and
files get easily corrupted. You *may* be OK loading *from* but why not just
get into the habit of copying to the main hard drive and always working from
there?

This is yet another bug that we have had for so many releases. I guess
M$FT is too poor to fix bugs.

The temp files should all be in a temp directory, not cluttering up my
personal folders and certainly not written to floppies.

And there is no excuse for a M$FT application using the M$FT file
system to ever crash or have corruption.

This is just shitty code. It would not get a passing grade in an
undergraduate programming course. Total BS.