saving word 2003 documents across the internet

[Guest]

I have mapped a folder on another computer on the internet.
I can set my documents folder to the mapped drive.
I can save documents to folder ok.
Problem - Word hangs after I have saved the document.

 

[Jezebel]

Your penultimate and ultimate sentences seem to be in contradiction.

As a general prinicple, don't use Word to save directly to (or read directly
from) any location other than a direct-connected hard disk folder. Save the
file locally and use Explorer for the transfer to/from the remote location.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jezebel for your advice. Does this also apply to a another local
computer on a peer to peer network?
Neil

 

[Jezebel]

Depends on the network. The issue is that Word does not simply read the file
when you open it and write it back when you save it. On opening, Word
creates a lock file, optionally a backup copy, and a temporary work file
containing the moment-to-moment version of the document as you edit it. This
work file is read and written continually while you edit the document. Then
it all gets cleaned up when you save and close. All of which makes for a) a
lot of network traffic, and b) non-trivial file activities.

Which is why saving across the Internet is fraught, and why working with a
document on a removable medium is deadly. On a simple, low-volume
peer-to-peer network you will probably be OK. But why gamble? Silly to risk
losing your Word efforts because the person on the other machine picks a bad
moment to bring the network to a halt by restarting their machine or
downloading a remix of In a Gadda da Vida.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Neil,

As Jezebel mentions, working from Word on documents on removable media (whether it's a single diskette, CD or a network link) can be
a bit risky, but if it's what you need to do then one setting that may help is in Tools=>Options=>Save
[x] Make local copy of files stored on removable or network drives

What that setting is supposed to do is to make the working copy of the Word document available on the harddrive of the local
computer, much in the way that your browser is actually viewing HTML pages from the temporary file cache on your PC rather than on
another computer on the internet.


[now if I could just stop that 'Iron Butterfly' song Jezebel mentioned from playing in my head...<g>]

======
Thanks Jezebel for your advice. Does this also apply to a another local
computer on a peer to peer network?
Neil >>

 

[Guest]

Just looked in Execel you would have thought MS would have put this option in
there as well. No consistency.
Neil