Document changes itself to read-only in mid-edit

[bryanw74]

I'm using Word 2003 with XP Pro. Working well until about four weeks ago,
when this new problem suddenly appeared. No new programs installed around
then.

What happens is, I open a previously saved document on my local drive to
continue work on it, I can save it several times as I work, then the next
save comes up as "save as" because the document has turned itself into
read-only. I can save this current version with a new name, then open the
original version complete with all saves up to this one - and it's no longer
read only!

Happens on many different docs (can't identify a common thread). Never (so
far) happens on the first save, but after that it happens apparently at
random - could be the second save, could be the twentieth. Resetting
attributes including deliberately checking read-only and then unchecking it,
doesn't work. Reloading Word hasn't helped. Any thoughts, anyone? Thinks:
never had this problem with my quill and parchment.

 

[Sam]

All a person can say is - welcome to Microsoft products. I have had many of
the same problems in the past, where the programs (plural) suddenly for
absolutely no reason at all decide to uncheck some buried box that completely
change all the settings... You then have to go in and find it to recheck it.
It may even get worse, I had a Word document that I had spent probably 300+
hours on over the course of 2 or 3 years, suddenly one day while trying to
open it to continue working on it decide that the file had a serious error
and wouldn't let me open it (no matter what I or others did). The only happy
ending I had to that was that I just happened to save the file to my work
server prior to its corruption... Microsoft almost got kicked to the curb for
that, as I was a bit upset!

My suggestion is that you should always have a backup (I have 2 in separate
buildings) that isn't on the computer you are using for all important
files...

It will be interesting if another user has any more positive advice, as I
would be very interesting in hearing it myself

Cheers,

Sam