Document 'mysteriously' changes from .doc to *.tmp file

[Guest]

I have an associate that has been working in word for the past couple of
weeks on several documents. Almost daily, as she's working and saving,
she'll notice that the document name has changed from what she called it to a
~*.tmp file. Afterwards, she's been able to 'find' the ~*.tmp file in RECENT
documents or TEMP fiolder, but the original shows prior to any changes saved.

Any suggestions???

 

[Jay Freedman]

The document is not "changing" from .doc to ~*.tmp -- they are
completely separate files and they're both present simultaneously. The
..tmp file is, as should be obvious, a temporary file. Word uses dozens
of them for various things while you're editing the document, as
explained in http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632.

Word is supposed to clean up after itself and delete all the temporary
files when you close the document with which they're associated, but
it doesn't always manage to do it completely. To find instructions for
manual cleanup, see
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

OK... I understand why Word creates a tmp file, but what I don't get is why
the document name at the top of the window is showing as a ~*.tmp file and
when she saves it, it saves it as the ~*.tmp file and then she can't always
find where it saved it.

Is there a setting that needs to be changed so that she doesn't continue to
have this problem? We're running XP Pro w/ Office 2003 SP2. We are also in
the process of getting memory to bring us up to 1GB. Do you think that will
help?

As usual, thank you for your response... this forum is THE BEST!

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Barb,

The .tmp files should go away when Word is closed. They may not if Word is shutdown other than by user choice, or if the
permissions on the folder it's in don't allow deletion of files.

Those files are usually hidden. If you change the Windows Explorer setting to not show hidden files the user shouldn't be seeing
them.

In File=>Open=>Recent Documents the shortcuts there (and that's what's usually there unless she's saving to the 'Recent' folder) are
tied to a registry setting that can purge/hide that type of history listing but the ~$name.xxx files generally don't appear in that
list.


=============
OK... I understand why Word creates a tmp file, but what I don't get is why
the document name at the top of the window is showing as a ~*.tmp file and
when she saves it, it saves it as the ~*.tmp file and then she can't always
find where it saved it.

Is there a setting that needs to be changed so that she doesn't continue to
have this problem? We're running XP Pro w/ Office 2003 SP2. We are also in
the process of getting memory to bring us up to 1GB. Do you think that will
help?

As usual, thank you for your response... this forum is THE BEST! >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Is she opening the document directly from an email attachment?

--
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.

 

[Guest]

It's not a matter that she doesn't 'WANT' to see them, it's that, that's the
only place she can find them once she notices that the document has changed
from *.doc to *.tmp. If she continues as if she hasn't noticed the change
and clicks 'file-save' it saves it as the *.tmp file and not the *.doc file.

 

[Guest]

No, it's a document she created from within Word... "Notes to self" or
something like that.

 

[Mike Starr]

I would guess she somehow directly opened the ~tmp file and now she's saving
that. Have her do a "Save As...", giving it a new file name and storing it
in a location where she can find it easily if it's not in her recent files
list. See if that doesn't resolve her problem.

Mike

 

[Beth Melton]

If the document is getting replaced with a temp file, such as one minute the
title bar read NotesToSelf.doc and the next it reads ~wrd0003.tmp then my
first thought is it's being caused by a third-party -Word doesn't have a
setting that will do this. You could have a third-party add-in causing the
issue, it could possibly be your virus scanner, or it could be a network
issue.

To narrow down the source, start Word in Safe Mode, hold Ctrl while starting
Word and continue holding Ctrl until you're prompted to start in Safe Mode.
Have her work in Safe Mode and see is the issue occurs. If it doesn't then
let us know and we'll provide information on how to check for global
templates and COM Add-ins.

If it continues to occur then are the file stored locally or on a network
drive or removable media? What virus scanner do you use? Does it happen to
all documents or just one?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Shawn Berg]

i'm getting the same problem. if i start word in safe mode the problem
goes away.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Then see http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm then
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Shawn Berg]

I was wrong...i do see this problem when running in the safe mode, it
just took longer for me to see, but it is a intermittent problem in
the first place.