Doug Bruening wrote:
I am teaching a Word Processing class and my students would like some
more information about the ~$... file that gets temporarily created
whenever you open a document. I understand that Word opens a "copy"
of the file and you don't access the actual document until you save
it. The ~$... file is unreadable through Word and I'd like some more
information about what how the file is organized and specifically how
Word uses it. My assumption is that it is a delta file showing the
changes you've made against the original. Any info I can pass on the
my class would be appreciated.

One more resource (possibly more than you ever wanted to know):

Description of how Word creates temporary files
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632

The ~$ file is described under the heading "Owner file".

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org