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.

"Doug Bruening" Doug
wrote in message
...
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.

I can't help a lot, but I think you have the basics
down. You CAN open them with Word, but as you've seen
it's not readable. . You'd need a Hex editor to look
into them because they contain a lot of control codes
and other code that isn't text.

Basically, and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm
too far into left field, they are "scratch" areas for
Word to use. They might contain groups of commands
you've given, a programmatical index of the document
for navigation by Word (not you), and several other
things like that. They may also be snippets of code if
you will, or instructions for various things, even
pre-fetched things so Word can be ready to do something
without having to get it from the hard drive, things
like that.

Somewhere there is a good description of those files,
but as usual I can't find them! I don't think you need
that much depth though, for the audience you have.
It's kind of like, when you didn't have to show your
work on an exam, you scratched it all out on the back
of the paper anyway, to be sure you got the answer
right. Well, that's sort of what Word's doing g.

HTH,

Pop

When a previously saved file is opened for editing, printing, or review, Word
creates a temporary file with a .doc file name extension that begins with a
tilde "~" followed by a dollar sign "$" followed by the remainder of the
original file name. This temporary file holds the logon name of the person
opening the file and is known as the "owner file."

When you try to open a file that is available on a network and is already
open by someone else, this file supplies the user name for the following
error message: "This file is already opened by user name. Would you like to
make a copy of this file for your use?"

If the Owner File is damaged or missing the error message changes to: "This
file is already opened by another user. Would you like to make a copy of this
file for your use?"

Word automatically deletes the Owner File when the original file is closed.


"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.

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

Many years ago when I was learning how to use a computer, I asked my then
co-worker/whiz kid (now my beloved husband) a question about how something
worked. He responded "FM".

I thought, Frequency Modulation? I gave him a look that said "HUH?"

He replied, "F**king Magic."

I guess you can't tell your student that tho, can you?

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"Doug Bruening" Doug wrote in message
...
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.

In , JoAnn
Paules [MSFT MVP] told us an interesting story. My reply to this story
is at the bottom of this message.

Many years ago when I was learning how to use a computer, I asked my
then co-worker/whiz kid (now my beloved husband) a question about how
something worked. He responded "FM".

I thought, Frequency Modulation? I gave him a look that said "HUH?"

He replied, "F**king Magic."

giggle
Also known as BS. That's Blue Smoke for you leftpondians. No, not the
one you can buy in Holland. *sigh*

I guess you can't tell your student that tho, can you?

It depends. Magic is an Official Technical Term that even got included
in The Jargon File:


magic
{Prev}* M *{Next}
magic
1. adj. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare
{automagically} and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." "TTY echoing is
controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This routine magically
computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three instructions."
2. adj. Characteristic of something that works although no one really
understands why (this is especially called {black magic}).
3. n. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized that allows
something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly in that category
but now unveiled.
4. n. The ultimate goal of all engineering & development, elegance in
the extreme; from the first corollary to Clarke's Third Law: "Any
technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced".
Parodies playing on these senses of the term abound; some have made
their way into serious documentation, as when a MAGIC directive was
described in the Control Card Reference for GCOS c.1978. For more about
hackish 'magic', see {Appendix A}. Compare {black magic}, {wizardly},
{deep magic}, {heavy wizardry}.
{Prev}* {Up} *{Next}
maggotbox* {Home} *magic cookie

--
Amedee Van Gasse

I was telling Keith about this question. He suggested informing the students
that if he could answer *all* of their questions, he wouldn't be standing
there teaching them. He'd be making big bucks working for a company like
Microsoft.

(I remember once at work someone fried some component. They said it no
longer worked because they left the smoke out. Guess that's the Blue Smoke,
huh?)

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"Amedee Van Gasse" wrote in message
...
In , JoAnn
Paules [MSFT MVP] told us an interesting story. My reply to this story
is at the bottom of this message.

Many years ago when I was learning how to use a computer, I asked my
then co-worker/whiz kid (now my beloved husband) a question about how
something worked. He responded "FM".

I thought, Frequency Modulation? I gave him a look that said "HUH?"

He replied, "F**king Magic."

giggle
Also known as BS. That's Blue Smoke for you leftpondians. No, not the
one you can buy in Holland. *sigh*

I guess you can't tell your student that tho, can you?

It depends. Magic is an Official Technical Term that even got included
in The Jargon File:


magic
{Prev} M {Next}
magic
1. adj. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare
{automagically} and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." "TTY echoing is
controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This routine magically
computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three instructions."
2. adj. Characteristic of something that works although no one really
understands why (this is especially called {black magic}).
3. n. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized that allows
something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly in that category
but now unveiled.
4. n. The ultimate goal of all engineering & development, elegance in
the extreme; from the first corollary to Clarke's Third Law: "Any
technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced".
Parodies playing on these senses of the term abound; some have made
their way into serious documentation, as when a MAGIC directive was
described in the Control Card Reference for GCOS c.1978. For more about
hackish 'magic', see {Appendix A}. Compare {black magic}, {wizardly},
{deep magic}, {heavy wizardry}.
{Prev} {Up} {Next}
maggotbox {Home} magic cookie

--
Amedee Van Gasse

In , JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP] told us
an interesting story. My reply to this story is at the bottom of this
message.

I was telling Keith about this question. He suggested informing the
students that if he could answer all of their questions, he wouldn't
be standing there teaching them. He'd be making big bucks working for
a company like Microsoft.

(I remember once at work someone fried some component. They said it
no longer worked because they left the smoke out. Guess that's the
Blue Smoke, huh?)

Your lesson you have learned well, my young apprentice.

--
Amedee Van Gasse