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What is the Word Work File....? And how do I get rid of it?

Anonymous
2010-09-01T20:32:28+00:00

Recently our office has switched to Office 2007 and Windows 7. Now when we are working on documents from our server, Word Work Files show up. We can't open them and we can't delete them. What are they and why have they just begun to show up? It is not every file, but it has happened at least once to every user.

Any thoughts will be helpful.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-02T05:26:27+00:00

    Whenever a document is opened in Word a lock or owner file is created in the folder from which the document is opened. That file will have a name similar to

    ~$lename.docx i.e. the first two characters of the filename are replaced with ~$

    This is entirely normal and unavoidable and you cannot delete the files while the document is open. You can turn off the display of hidden files in Windows, but I would urge you not to as orphaned hidden files can cause operational issues - seehttp://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm

    <MPopp521> wrote in message news:*** Email address is removed for privacy ***...

    Recently our office has switched to Office 2007 and Windows 7. Now when we are working on documents from our server, Word Work Files show up. We can't open them and we can't delete them. What are they and why have they just begun to show up? It is not every file, but it has happened at least once to every user.

    Any thoughts will be helpful.


    Graham Mayor - Word MVP

    www.gmayor.com

    Posted via the Communities Bridge

    http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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