Every change I make to my open document is saved to my desktop as a different
version? they show up as almost transparent *.tmp files. I have Word 2003. it
appears as ~$ and then the document name. a lot of times I don't even have to
make any changes, it appears on the desktop when I simply minimize the
document. Can anyone help me with where to change this setting?
Read the article
How Word for Windows Uses Temporary Files
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632
for an explanation of why and where Word creates these files. Many of
them *must* be in the same folder as the original document because of
the way they're created and used.
If you store any document on the desktop and edit it with Word, at
least some of its temp files *will* appear on the desktop while it's
open -- you can't change that. However, they should disappear when you
close Word. If that doesn't happen, you'll have to delete them
manually, as explained at
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm
If you never store any documents on the desktop, but instead store
them in other folders, you'll never see the temp files unless you go
looking for them. You can put a shortcut to a document on the desktop,
so it's just as convenient as having the document itself there, but
the temp files will be created in the folder with the real document.
If there are documents you use very often over long periods, you may
be interested in a little-known feature of Word called the Work menu
(
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/WorkMenu.htm).
