If you open a word file off a network drive, and then do a saveas to a new
file, the original file remains locked until you close the new file. We
have found this to be the case with our Word 2003. This seems like a bug to
me, and it seems like there should be a better answer than to tell people to
close the file and then reopen. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Templates will not help either. This is random files that you start a new
file from.

Hi Tim:

It's not exactly a bug, it's a documented function. The "bug" is in the way
your file server has been set to handle the situation :-)

Word applies an "exclusive read" lock on any file it has open. On Windows,
most applications do: Windows file locking is not as sophisticated as
mainframes.

If you make a copy of a document, or open a template, Windows holds the file
locked just in case you need anything from it. This applies to "Save As"
files as well. The underlying mechanism is quite complex. In this case
when you opened the file probably some field or document property updated.
It's hard to open a document without this happening. Word then created a
TEMP file to store the changes in case you chose to save them. That temp
file persists until Word exits, giving you the ability to "undo changes".
But while the temp file exists, Windows holds a lock on the server file.

This is a real pain if you are trying to maintain templates. As soon as
anyone tries to use the templates, they get locked by the first user to open
a document attached to one. After that, it's almost impossible to update
the template unless you can get all users in the company to log off before
they go home. Since you can't...

What you need to do is tell your Network Administrators to make you up a
script that forces all files in the template folder you are interested in to
be released. This is not a complex script, but it needs to be "Run As" with
Domain Administrator privileges.

Of course when you ask for this, your Network Administrator will go pale:
it's a truly scary concept to them. If you did it on a mainframe, all hell
would break loose, and chances are you would bring the system down. On
Windows, chances are nobody will notice :-) If you blow Word's lock on a
file away, it will notice this, calmly retry, and if it gets the lock
restored it will carry on without the user ever being aware that the file
went away.

To make it safe, YOU have to learn never to apply this for long. Make a
copy of the file, do your changes to the copy, blow the users out of the
original and instantly Save As so that the network file is not off the air
for more than a few seconds. You also need to be utterly sure that no
"users" can get WRITE permission to the file. Otherwise you change a copy,
save to the original, then some user manages to restore a lock and "Saves"
their copy, which would overwrite your updates. So you can only do this to
a folder where the "users" have read-only access.

At one large site I worked at, we dealt with this by forcing all users off
the file server with a schedule at four a.m. Sunday morning. We queued
updates to our templates in a copy folder all week, and on Sunday morning we
automatically blew the users out of the file server and copied the updates
into the correct folders. Chances are your Network Administrators already
have a mechanism exactly like this configured for their own use (otherwise
they would never be able to update anything either...) and you can just
piggy-back on theirs.

Hope this helps

On 27/3/06 11:07 PM, in article , "Tim"
wrote:

If you open a word file off a network drive, and then do a saveas to a new
file, the original file remains locked until you close the new file. We
have found this to be the case with our Word 2003. This seems like a bug to
me, and it seems like there should be a better answer than to tell people to
close the file and then reopen. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Templates will not help either. This is random files that you start a new
file from.



--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

Hi John

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
[..]
What you need to do is tell your Network Administrators to make you up a
script that forces all files in the template folder you are interested in to
be released. This is not a complex script, but it needs to be "Run As" with
Domain Administrator privileges.

Just wondering: you are not fond of distributing templates to the users'
local machines when they log on?

Greetings
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word

Hi Robert:

I am not fond of the interdepartmental war of attrition that breaks out
trying to persuade "them" to do it in any company with more than 100 staff.

I am not fond of having to wait three months for the work request to be
carried out each time I want to update a template.

I am not fond of the version control hell that results from road warriors
coming and going with their laptops.

And I doubt if I will live long enough to find an outsourced network
administrator who actually knows how to DO it.

Other than that, it's a great idea :-)


On 28/3/06 7:01 PM, in article , "Robert M.
Franz (RMF)" wrote:

Hi John

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
[..]
What you need to do is tell your Network Administrators to make you up a
script that forces all files in the template folder you are interested in to
be released. This is not a complex script, but it needs to be "Run As" with
Domain Administrator privileges.

Just wondering: you are not fond of distributing templates to the users'
local machines when they log on?

Greetings
Robert

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh] wrote:
I am not fond of the interdepartmental war of attrition that breaks out
trying to persuade "them" to do it in any company with more than 100 staff.

I am not fond of having to wait three months for the work request to be
carried out each time I want to update a template.

I am not fond of the version control hell that results from road warriors
coming and going with their laptops.

And I doubt if I will live long enough to find an outsourced network
administrator who actually knows how to DO it.

Other than that, it's a great idea :-)

Ouch, OKOK, I'm beginning to feel your pain!

[It's especially beceause of laptops which are on and off the company
network that distributing them at logon (to server) time still seems
desireable.]

And I hope that when I work for a company with 100+ people (or, at
least, 100+ whitecollar people), they will not have outsourced
sysadmins, but only time will tell ...

Greetingx from "Up Over"
Robert
--
/"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | MS
\ / | MVP
X Against HTML | for
/ \ in e-mail & news | Word