temp back up files - why happen automatically?

[rosell]

I am on Windows XP professional.
Whenever I open a folder and double click a word document
file to open it, the file opens and immediately a temp.
back up file is put into my folder. It has the " ~ "
befoare the name of the file. Oddly enough, the temp
back up file can not be opened. I am now havning
hundreds of back up files using up space.

How do I make it so this does not happen every time I
double click a document I have previously saved?

This does not happen in Excel documents.

 

[Frank]

I am on Windows XP professional.
Whenever I open a folder and double click a word document
file to open it, the file opens and immediately a temp.
back up file is put into my folder. It has the " ~ "
befoare the name of the file. Oddly enough, the temp
back up file can not be opened. I am now havning
hundreds of back up files using up space.

How do I make it so this does not happen every time I
double click a document I have previously saved?

This does not happen in Excel documents.

This is not an XP issue but an Office issue.
This is a way that saves are setup....
Word>>Tools>>Options>>Save
These features can be helpful to prevent losing files.