Open Documents Suddenly Become Read-Only

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 22, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Subscriber John McQuillan ran into a problem with one of his document files. It seems that Word periodically, and without warning, converts a file to "read only" while it is being used. It doesn't do this right after opening the file, but at different times while using the document, and most of the time after the file had already been saved a couple of times. Suddenly, the status of the file would change on its own, and when John tried to save again, Word wouldn't let him because the file was read-only.

We've not been able to discover the real cause for this problem, but one of our subscribers reported that she experienced the same problem with some Word 97 documents. It wouldn't happen to all the documents, but once it did happen to a particular document, it would keep happening to that document no matter what she did. The only way she was able to get around the problem was to turn off the automatic backup file feature in Word (Tools | Options | Save tab, clear Always Create Backup Copy) while working in that document.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (223) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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