Temp files gone mad!

[Dave]

Any idea why Word (which is playing up again for me) would create 18 temp
files when I open a single document?
Say my document is called Mydoc.doc then of course I get ~$ Mydoc.doc. But
I also get 17 (yes seventeen) assorted ~WRL2034.tmp type files. What's
going on here??

Dave

 

[Jay Freedman]

Any idea why Word (which is playing up again for me) would create 18 temp
files when I open a single document?
Say my document is called Mydoc.doc then of course I get ~$ Mydoc.doc. But
I also get 17 (yes seventeen) assorted ~WRL2034.tmp type files. What's
going on here??

Dave

Hi Dave,

The contents of the temp files depends on what you have in your
document. The article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632
explains what they're for.

There are only three common situations where you'd ever see what temp
files are created, and two of them are easy to avoid.

- One is when you keep documents on your desktop; because most temp
files are created in the same folder as the document, they show up
there too. The answer is to keep all your documents in some other
folder, such as My Documents. If you want the icons handy, make
shortcuts on the desktop, but not the documents themselves.

- The second is when you have an Explorer window open to the folder
where the document is, and the temp files appear there. The solution
is to just ignore the temp files. Sort the list by type and the
temp files will stay out of your way.

- The only time you need to be concerned about temp files is when they
don't automatically go away when you close the document. See
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm for cleanup
instructions.

 

[Margaret Aldis]

The ~WRL files are often created when macros run - I've always assumed
(though this may be quite wrong) that they are used by Word to perform Undos
of complex operations of various types (for instance, you get them if you
edit an embedded object too.)

If you are getting a rash when you open a particular document, you might
want to investigate what macros are running on Open - whether this is what
you are expecting or something more suspicious. You could start by taking a
look using the Visual Basic editor (from Tools > Macros) to see what code
is present, and also have a look at the Undo list to see if that offers any
clues.

 

[TF]

My guess is that you've been copy/pasting? Everytime you copy, it creates a
new temp file until the Office Clipboard is full (when it starts to
overwrite the oldest copy/paste). When Word is closed (and Outlook if it is
open), the temp files should clear as the Office Clipboard is flushed.



: Any idea why Word (which is playing up again for me) would create 18 temp
: files when I open a single document?
: Say my document is called Mydoc.doc then of course I get ~$ Mydoc.doc.
But
: I also get 17 (yes seventeen) assorted ~WRL2034.tmp type files. What's
: going on here??
:
: Dave
:
:

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Dave,

As Terry mentioned the ~WRL files are clipboard files.
This article describes the other temp files that Word
uses in daily operation.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;211632&FR=1

=======
Any idea why Word (which is playing up again for me) would create 18 temp
files when I open a single document?
Say my document is called Mydoc.doc then of course I get ~$ Mydoc.doc. But
I also get 17 (yes seventeen) assorted ~WRL2034.tmp type files. What's
going on here??

Dave >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Hi Dave,

As Terry mentioned the ~WRL files are clipboard files.
This article describes the other temp files that Word
uses in daily operation.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;211632&FR=1

=======
Any idea why Word (which is playing up again for me) would create 18 temp
files when I open a single document?
Say my document is called Mydoc.doc then of course I get ~$ Mydoc.doc.
But
I also get 17 (yes seventeen) assorted ~WRL2034.tmp type files. What's
going on here??

Dave >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[Margaret Aldis]

That's a useful list - of course it's the ~WRM files that relate to macros,
so I shouldn't have muddied the water with that.

But I think we might now make a guess where 18 ~WRL files on Open could be
coming from - don't Adobe PDFMaker and many other add-ins use the clipboard
to set up their custom menus?