Saving As Doc in Word 2008

[MacAttorney]

I have set Word 2008 to save files in DOC (rather than DOCX) format by
default.

When I open a DOC file, and modify it, and then attempt to save it
(using Save, not Save As), Word does not save the changes to the
original file, but rather to a file that it names "Comment" rather
than the name of the original file. It saves this Comment file to the
desktop, rather than the location of the original file. The original
file is left unchanged.

How can I get Word to save changes to the original file?

 

[John McGhie]

If the original is in the new format, Word cannot overwrite it with the old
format.

If you turn on "Always make backup" in Word>Preferences>Edit... It may be
able to, because then it releases the old file before attempting to write
the new file.

However, I think you will find that you can either save to the existing file
in the existing format, or save to a new file in the old format, but not
both in the same operation.

If the file you are trying to write is NOT in the new format, then I am not
sure what is wrong. I assume that it is not locked "Read Only"?

Cheers

I have set Word 2008 to save files in DOC (rather than DOCX) format by
default.

When I open a DOC file, and modify it, and then attempt to save it
(using Save, not Save As), Word does not save the changes to the
original file, but rather to a file that it names "Comment" rather
than the name of the original file. It saves this Comment file to the
desktop, rather than the location of the original file. The original
file is left unchanged.

How can I get Word to save changes to the original file?

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[MacAttorney]

If the original is in the new format, Word cannot overwrite it with the old
format.

If you turn on "Always make backup" in Word>Preferences>Edit... It may be
able to, because then it releases the old file before attempting to write
the new file.

However, I think you will find that you can either save to the existing file
in the existing format, or save to a new file in the old format, but not
both in the same operation.

If the file you are trying to write is NOT in the new format, then I am not
sure what is wrong.  I assume that it is not locked "Read Only"?

The original files are in the old format, yet I can't save them in the
old format. I can only save them to a file that is named by default
"comment." The files are not locked.

Do you know what a "comment" file is? I don't see anything in
Preferences that seems to pertain to it.

 

[John McGhie]

Hmmm...

Old .doc format saves perfectly here from Word 2008.

There is no such thing as a "Comment" file. When you first save a file from
Word, if you do not assign a file name, it takes the file name from the
first line of text in the document. I suspect that's where the "Comment"
name came from.

Now: If the document is in .dot format (old template format) Word "should"
force you to save that to a specific folder, because it is a template.

But if it is a .doc, you should be able to save it "anywhere".

Dare I assume that you can save a file "anywhere" from TextEdit?

TextEdit will edit an old .doc file. If you open the file in TextEdit, can
it save the file?

This is quite strange. I would suggest running Disk Utility and run a
Verify Disk to see what it tells you...

Sorry to be no help...

The original files are in the old format, yet I can't save them in the
old format. I can only save them to a file that is named by default
"comment." The files are not locked.

Do you know what a "comment" file is? I don't see anything in
Preferences that seems to pertain to it.

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

Building on what John's last reply hints at: Is this a file you downloaded
using Safari? If so it may have had a .dot extension added to it making it
work as a template even though it isn't supposed to be one.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac