I have a number of Word documents (such as letters) that I re-use by opening
the document, changing dates, addressees, etc. and saving under a new name.
Lately since we switched over to Word 2003, once I have made one change to a
document and saved it, the next time I open it, it opens as "read only."

I have looked under Tools/Options/Security, and the read-only box is not
checked. I have also right-clicked the name of the document and clicked on
Properties, and read-only is not checked there either. I end up saving it
again under a new name and then deleting one of the copies, so this is not
fatal, but it is certainly a pain.

Is there some way to stop this from happening?

Why don't you use the tools Microsoft has provided and save the re-used
letter document(s) as a template, with the variable text removed? You can
then create new documents from the template as required and there is no
renaming issue and the read-only problem (probably a minor corruption)
should not arise.
See also http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Kaysee wrote:
I have a number of Word documents (such as letters) that I re-use by
opening the document, changing dates, addressees, etc. and saving
under a new name. Lately since we switched over to Word 2003, once I
have made one change to a document and saved it, the next time I open
it, it opens as "read only."

I have looked under Tools/Options/Security, and the read-only box is
not checked. I have also right-clicked the name of the document and
clicked on Properties, and read-only is not checked there either. I
end up saving it again under a new name and then deleting one of the
copies, so this is not fatal, but it is certainly a pain.

Is there some way to stop this from happening?