Word cannot save file with same name as open document

[Andre Monserrat]

I tried to save a Word 2003 document I had been editing
and the Save As dialogue box comes up instead. There is
also an error message saying that Word cannot save a file
with the same name as an open document. The only
document open is the one I am working on and trying to
save.
So I have to save it as Document 2. Then it happens
again and I can't use Document or Document 2 as names, so
I have to call it Document 3.
Here's what's weirder: Document 2 and 3 are both
zero k in size, yet they contain the entirety of the
original Document (a 150k file) plus the changes I've
made since I saved it with the new filename.

Is there a fix for this?

 

[Andre Monserrat]

I closed Word and tried moving the original document to
another folder and I got an error message that another
program was using it. I saw WINWORD.EXE was still
running as a process (probably due to Outlook being open)
and I stopped it. I was able to move the file. But when
I went to open Document 2 and 3, Word said it needed to
install a converter to read it and once it finally opened
the documents, they were both blank. I just lost a lot
of work. Where did my changes go? I saved them and
verified that Word was keeping the changes by closing
Word and re-opening the document. But now those
documents are empty. It had to be storing the text
SOMEWHERE. Is there a temp file I should be looking for
that may contain what I'm missing?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I would guess that names such as Document1 (or even Document 1) simply
confuse Word, since those are what it uses by default for *untitled*
documents. Try giving your file a more descriptive name instead.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Beth Melton]

Hi Andre,

Are you sure you are opening the documents and not a temp file? Do the
file names have a ~ as the first character or a *.tmp file extension?

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
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