File is in use - make copy? Annoyance

[Alan]

Whenever I double click a Word doc in explorere to edit
it, Word97 opens OK, with the document, but a dialogue
appears saying "the file is already in use" (by
me), "would I like to make a copy?". It all work OK with
no crashes, it's just annoying.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See these articles:

Cannot open or delete a document (claims to be "in use by another user" when
it isn't)
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/DocInUse.htm

What to do when Word crashes?
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm