Word 2008 opens files as read only

[Chris Bailey]

I do computer support work for a pair of lawyers in town. Last month, I
setup one with a brand-new iMac (Mac OS X 10.5.2, Office 2008 12.0.1)
and he's been working heavily in Word with no problems saving files. I
setup the other lawyer's office last week with a new iMac (same exact
specs), and the only difference here is that this office has multiple
Macs, so they save all their documents on a Mac server (running Mac OS
X Server 10.4.11 PPC using ACL to determine read/write permissions).
The clerk who uses this computer is frequently running into a problem
where documents she opens that are on the file server are read only.
She can do a "Save As" and put a new copy of the file (with a different
name, of course) in the same directory on the server. But then she
closes the original file and opens the copy only to find out it too is
read only! It doesn't always happen, so this seems to be a random
issue. But based on the fact that the first lawyer I work for has not
run into this problem once, I'm figuring it has to do with saving the
files to a Mac server?

Has anyone else run into this, or know of a way around it other than
constantly saving new copies of a document?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Chris:

Yes, it's a known bug with saving to "any" network server in Office 2008.

The fix should be in the next service pack to arrive, which should be within
the next few weeks (the SP has been in testing for some weeks now...)

In the meantime, you can either roll back to Word 2004 on the network, or
"work local". The problem is that Word is not issuing the correct commands
to the file server to release the file.

Tell the user to use the Finder to copy the file from the server to her
desktop, work on it, then use the Finder to copy the changed version back to
the file server. That will work around the problem.

Hope this helps

I do computer support work for a pair of lawyers in town. Last month, I
setup one with a brand-new iMac (Mac OS X 10.5.2, Office 2008 12.0.1)
and he's been working heavily in Word with no problems saving files. I
setup the other lawyer's office last week with a new iMac (same exact
specs), and the only difference here is that this office has multiple
Macs, so they save all their documents on a Mac server (running Mac OS
X Server 10.4.11 PPC using ACL to determine read/write permissions).
The clerk who uses this computer is frequently running into a problem
where documents she opens that are on the file server are read only.
She can do a "Save As" and put a new copy of the file (with a different
name, of course) in the same directory on the server. But then she
closes the original file and opens the copy only to find out it too is
read only! It doesn't always happen, so this seems to be a random
issue. But based on the fact that the first lawyer I work for has not
run into this problem once, I'm figuring it has to do with saving the
files to a Mac server?

Has anyone else run into this, or know of a way around it other than
constantly saving new copies of a document?

--

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
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Miles_Stokes]

The company I do IT for is having this problem as well. We also have a sporadic error where attempting to open a file on a network drive (usually a network home directory) will produce a

Cannot access '(filename)'.

error. Clicking OK and opening the file again usually works.

John, you mentioned a new Office service pack is in testing that addresses this type of error. Do you know if information on this service pack available anywhere?

Thanks!

 

[CyberTaz]

MS holds to a firm policy of *not* promising "pie in the sky" with regards
to future releases. What can be fixed when the update is released will be &
documentation of what's included will accompany the release, but they will
not announce what they *intend* to include because it may not be doable
within the required time frame. Further, much of what MacBU wants to do is
dependent upon other sources - such as the Win side & Apple - which may not
be able to deliver on time.

I understand your eager anticipation, but I truly can't see why "knowing
what & when" can do any good ahead of time. Even if the prediction exceeded
expectations it does nobody any good until it's available

As my GrandPa used to say, "Don't look for me 'til you see me!".

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

 

[Miles_Stokes]

I can definitely see the logic behind that policy. I suppose the important part is that it's a known issue to Microsoft. As it's not a critical issue, we'll just hang tight for the time being.

Thanks!

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Miles:

Yeah, sorry: I have to fall back on the inane "Those who know, are not
allowed to tell us; those who tell us, don't know."

I can tell you that to Microsoft, this is an extremely critical issue
because it is doing all sorts of bad things on networks.

It's also ugly: Word saves to files that it is holding open, and expects to
be able to read and write from different parts of the same file at the same
time. Apple file transport protocols do not take kindly to this kind of
greediness; Windows NTFS was designed for it

So the issue is how to use an Apple transport to signal to the file server
(which may BE a Windows file server) that you haven't changed your mind, you
really do want to save this bit and read the next bit at the same time...


They had this working under 10.4, but Apple has made the game more exciting
in version 5

Cheers

I can definitely see the logic behind that policy. I suppose the important
part is that it's a known issue to Microsoft. As it's not a critical issue,
we'll just hang tight for the time being.

Thanks!

--
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]