Another set of Read Only woes

[feetintheair]

I've just spent the last few hours reading these posts, applying the advice
I've been reading here, and becoming more and more frustrated with the same
Read Only files problem. I recently bought a Toshiba notebook, which came
with Windows XP Home. I'm a professional writer, and I've been planning to
use the notebook mostly for working on my various projects. I installed Word
2000 on it, the same disk I'd used when installing the program on my desktop
computer (which uses Win ME). Since that's the computer hooked up to my
printer, I'd intended to make backup copies of Word 2000 files on a CD, then
transfer them to my desktop and then to the printer.

I've had some Read Only problems on my desktop, but it's not hard to make
copies and/or change the filenames, saving to the hard drive. However, on
the Toshiba, this seems much harder to do. It's not consistent, either. One
night I practically killed Word because it kept telling me that *all* my
documents were Read Only although the previous evening, none of them had
been. Tonight, it's not doing that, at least not when I Save to the hard
disk. However, I have not been able to save anything to the CD. That
miserable term, "Read Only," keeps showing up.

On one of the posts on this list (from tj), I read that one could go through
Windows Explorer, open the file and right-click on it, click on Properties,
and then uncheck "Read Only." So I did that, thinking, whew! My troubles are
over. But when I clicked on Apply, I rec'd the following Error message:

Error Applying Attributes
D:\ Chapters. doc
Access is denied

So much for that. lostinspace said, "It's not a good practice to save Word
docs to transportable media (floppies, CD or DVD,) rather save the files to
your local hard drive and then COPY to transportable media." I tried that,
but the copy didn't take. Besides, in order to get the material I'd copied
onto the CD, I had to Save it, and up popped the paperclip, telling me I
couldn't do that because D: was guess what? "Read Only." Is there another
way of doing this? I'm entirely humble. I'd love to learn whatever it is I
need to make this work. (Oh yeah, someone on this list said something about
files on CDs all being Read Only--is that true? How come? And what's the
use of having unusable, unchangeable backups?)

I'm not totally computer savvy, but I've been saving Word files onto
floppies for years with nary a problem. True, I haven't been using CDs, but
this notebook has no A: drive. I can purchase an external drive, but I'd
prefer not to. That's what the DVD/CD drive's for. And how do I know Read
Only wouldn't show up in reference to a floppy?

So I guess my major question is, How do I make backup copies that aren't
Read Only? Again, what's the use of a file that can't be changed or Saved
elsewhere? How does one keep it safe? It's a bit of a bummer to sit here at
my desk into the wee small hours, reading my text off the notebook and typing
it into the desktop in order to meet deadlines! I may end up just printing
off the notebook, which would be a great idea if there were any extra room on
my desk.

Someone on another list (the person who suggested I get in touch with you)
told me that in many cases, Word 2000 and Win XP aren't entirely friendly
with each other and that a lot of people with this combination have problems
with the Read Only attribute. Yet I read on this list that the programs get
along fine. If so, what else could be causing the problem? I understand
that Word 2000 and 2003 do work well with Win XP, so I guess if I have to,
I'll shell out the money for an upgrade...I don't have to buy an entirely new
Word program, right?

Thanks a lot in advance for any help you can give me.

feetintheair
Kirkland, WA (right down the road apiece from the Microsoft campus)

 

[Rob Schneider]

Unless you use software more sophisticated than that which comes with
Windows XP, all files written to CD are read only. That's the way CD's
work. Don't think of them as equivalent to a floppy disk. Use them for
backup, and that's it. Don't try to open or re-write them to the CD.
Use your hard disk for that.

When you are ready for something more sophisticated, get more
sophisticated CD burning software and read about how you can use
re-writeable CD disks.

But in the meantime. Keep it simple. Use them for backups only. When
you bring them back from CD onto the hard disk, then remove the
read-only property.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[feetintheair]

Thanks, Rob. I have a copy of Nero5 Burning Rom, the program that works fine
on my desktop. I'll install it on the notebook, see what happens, and let
you know. I had no problem moving files via CD from the desktop to the
notebook. Used Nero to burn that CD. Transferred the files easy as pie.
Was a bit of a shock to the system to find out the reverse didn't work!

Do you have any idea why my copy of Word 2000 would tell me off and on that
a file that wasn't Read Only one day has switched to Read Only on the next?
This does happen on the desktop now and then, but on the notebook, it happens
frequently. As I mentioned in my previous post, I can fix this on the
desktop, but the Read Only on the notebook, when it shows up, seems cast in
stone. I suppose I should shut down and reboot, but what a hassle! I've
used the same Word 2000 disk on both computers, so maybe there's something
wrong with the program?

Would you recommend my upgrading to Word 2003?

Many thanks for the advice.

feetintheair
Kirkland, WA