Saved Documents

[Sue]

I have several people who have saved word documents that are shaded out with
a "$" in front of it. What causes this? I assume these are not the original
word documents.

 

[DeanH]

The ~$ file is an "owner" file that Word creates for each Word document you
open. It is normal behaviour for Word, and you can't stop Word from doing it.
See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632 "Description of how Word
creates temporary files" for more information. But you can stop Windows from
displaying the temporary files by starting Windows Explorer or My Computer
and clicking on Tools | Folder Options | View tab | select the "Do not show
hidden files and folders" radio button | OK.
These files "should" be deleted as you close the file AND close Word
application.
If you notice these are still in existence after application close and the
date of these files are old (ie more than one day) they can "usually" be
deleted without any detrimental effect to the original file. I tend to open
the original file and then close the application and see if the onership file
is then deleted.
Hope this helps
DeanH