[Ken Benson]

I'm doing some heavy-duty Find/Replace stuff, and I'm getting occasional
crashes. I can live with a crash once an hour, but the real annoyance is
that when Word crashes, it leaves the file set for Read Only. The only way I
know to get rid of the Read Only business is either to reboot the computer
or Save As the file to a new name.

Is there a way I can force a document to lose its Read Only status (without
rebooting)?

Ken Benson

[Cindy M.]

Hi Ken,

I'm doing some heavy-duty Find/Replace stuff, and I'm getting occasional
crashes. I can live with a crash once an hour, but the real annoyance is
that when Word crashes, it leaves the file set for Read Only. The only way I
know to get rid of the Read Only business is either to reboot the computer
or Save As the file to a new name.

Is there a way I can force a document to lose its Read Only status (without
rebooting)?

Probably not. This is an indication there are some "temp" files still present
that are locked "open" and holding the document "open", as well. Usually, you
can't delete the temp files at this point, either. Only after a re-boot.

If you suspect the crashes may be due to "overworking" Word's available memory
resources, try saving regularly and occasionally closing the document, then
opening it again. That might flush the "bad karma" and in the end cause less
loss of time (and nerves) than recovering from the crash.

FWIW, this problem with file locks seems (IMO) to occur less with Word 2003
and the improved recovery than with earlier versions.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
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[Ken Benson]

"Cindy M." wrote in message
news:VA.00000669.00cff7ed@speedy...

If you suspect the crashes may be due to "overworking" Word's available
memory
resources, try saving regularly and occasionally closing the document,
then
opening it again. That might flush the "bad karma" and in the end cause
less
loss of time (and nerves) than recovering from the crash.


Actually the crash problem was the opposite: I was opening, saving, and
closing too frequently. I have about 80 files, and I was going through them,
opening one at a time, doing a Find/Replace, saving it, closing it, opening
the next one, etc. Word seemed to be able to deal with this for about 25-30
files before it would crash.

Ken Benson

[Cindy M.]

Hi Ken,

Actually the crash problem was the opposite: I was opening, saving, and
closing too frequently. I have about 80 files, and I was going through them,
opening one at a time, doing a Find/Replace, saving it, closing it, opening
the next one, etc. Word seemed to be able to deal with this for about 25-30
files before it would crash.

Ouch. Sounds like a memory leak... In that case, exit Word and restart. Which
version of Word is this?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

[Ken Benson]

"Cindy M." wrote in message
news:VA.00000675.0054ed26@speedy...

Ouch. Sounds like a memory leak... In that case, exit Word and restart.
Which
version of Word is this?



I don't really need to exit and restart. Word (2000) is taking care of the
exit part for me. And the restart, well, the only way to get back into my
file (without renaming it) is to restart Windows. So, like it or not, I've
been exiting and restarting.

Thanks for your help, Cindy. I have to use Word only about once a month,
usually for some big project like this one, but usually only long enough to
get the text prepared for import into Indesign or some other DTP app. And my
computer is about due for replacement, so whatever crash problems I'm having
now will be replaced by some new problems in a month or two. :^)

Ken Benson