~$- popping up in save documents

R

Richard

I have recently had strange documents appearing in my
saved files and an concerned it could be some virus
(although my Norton Antivirus indicates the doc is clean).
When I go into word and open a file, I notice that there
often appears another "new" saved document with the same
name as an existing document but in front of the "new"
document will appear ~$- followed by the name of the
existing doc.

Does anyone have an idea why ~$- shows up? If I open that
document, only gibberish appears.

Thanks, Richard
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Richard,

This is a normal occurrence. What you are seeing is a temp file called
the Owner file that is created when you open a document. This holds
the user info of the individual that currently has the document open.
This temp is deleted when the document is closed.

You turn off the display of Hidden files to suppress the view or
disregard it.

If you find an Owner file for a document you do not have open then it
is safe to delete. For example if an error should occur, such as an
IPF, then Word is unable to delete the Owner file. So the next time
the document is opened, Word "sees" that an Owner file exists and
presents the message, "file is in use". I've also noticed that this
can happen if you manually delete the Owner file but the document
isn't released from memory.

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

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

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

Richard

Thank you, Beth.

How do I turn off the display of Hidden files which you
mentioned in your email? I appreciate your help.
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Richard,

You're welcome. :)

To suppress the view of hidden files, open an Exploring window and go
to Tools/Folder Options. On the View tab you will find an options for
showing hidden files. The exact wording varies depending on the
operating system.

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

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

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