temporary files

[RDCasey1]

I am new to Word 2003. Can someone tell me why, when I
open a document and make changes to it, Word creates a
file with the same name, except it replaces the first two
characters with ~$? Is this normal? What is the purpose
and is there a way to stop Word from doing this?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Bill Foley]

It does it because Word has a built-in feature to recover lost information
if your computer locks up. When you close Word (or close that document) the
temporary files get deleted automatically. When your computer locks up,
however, these files remain and can be used to recover your lost information
the next time you open Word.

These temporary files are also used to tell your computer what you are
working on. For example, if you open Word a temporary file gets created
telling your computer that Word is open (this is normally in a hidden
folder). If for some reason you went to open Word again, it would merely go
to that instance of Word (and not open it again). Same holds true with a
document. If one was already open and you forgot it was open and tried to
open it up again, the computer would merely make that document the active
window since it already knew the document was open.

These are all good things! Hope this clarifies!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See "WD: How Word for Windows Uses Temporary Files" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The temporary file RDCasey is referring to is not the AutoRecovery backup
file (which is created only if the user chooses it) but the "owner" file
that prevents other users from opening the document for editing while he/she
is using it.