Word 2000 error applying attributes

Helping a friend. She has saved many documents in Word 2000, but now finds they all are 'read-only'. She doesn't know how they came to be saved as read-only. It is impossible to change the attributes of these files in the usual manner - i.e. in Windows Explorer, right click the file name, click Property and remove the check at Read-Only.

We get the message "error in applying attributes." It is critical that she be able to access and change these files. How do we resolve this problem?

 

Need more detail I think. What OS? It will make a difference in what information is available and where to get it.

Slight topic switch. In the Security section you wondered if the advice by a poster would help or make things worse. Legit question but you should know that all these threads are read by at least a couple of staff folks and if we see someone giving questionable suggestions we will deal with it so that you get either no advice or good and safe advice.

In general a poster with a high post count is safe else he/she would have been banished long ago. But it's hard to know that until you've been with a forum for a while. One point in favor of finding one you are comfortable with and staying with it.

FWIW, I am not any sort of security expert. Dave (noahadfear) is. If I ask about security issues and he says 'do this', I will.

 

I've tried all the standard solutions and options suggested here and elsewhere; none of them worked. My friend has taken the laptop pc back as she is leaving on a trip, so will have to wait until she returns to try other fixes.

To Newt - thanks for the endorsement of this forum. I'll know now that I can rely on advice received here.

 

Newt,

Thank you for the endorsement and vote of confidence in me. It means alot to me.

Eleanor,

This happens to be, in my opinion, the friendliest and most helpful forum on the net. There is alot of collective knowledge gathered here, and it is passed along freely with only the intention to help. That does not mean you will always get good advice, but generally you will. Know that good or not, it was intended to help.

That said, access the folder where the files in question are kept through My Computer>C:, and check the attributes on the folder. Maybe even try toggling it to and from read only. If in your Documents folder and unable to change the attributes, try moving the documents to a new folder outside of My Documents. I also found the following that you could try.

Hope this helps.

 

noahdfrear
You wrote "In the bottom of the next dialog box, deselect the bottom checkbox (this turns on the read-only mode). "

Even though I don't have access to the pc in question at this time, I tried this on my pc with Word 2000. I do not have the box you cited on the General tab,. On the Save tab I have " Prompt for document properties ".

With this checked, when I save a document I am unable to select Attributes as they are grayed out at the bottom of the menu.

 

noahdfear: You wrote "access the folder where the files in question are kept through My Computer>C:, and check the attributes on the folder. Maybe even try toggling it to and from read only. If in your Documents folder and unable to change the attributes, try moving the documents to a new folder outside of My Documents. "

All this had been done with no success. The pc ion which the documents were originally created has Office 2000 Professional. The laptop (where the user wants to access/change these files) and my own pc use Office 2000 Small Business. Would that make a difference? .

 

Were these docs saved to a CD or network shares? I can't say for sure, but I would think both Office 2000 Pro. and Office 2000 SB use the same Word 2000 program, so I would expect that to make a difference.

 

Word has an internal 'read-only' flag that can be turned on. I am getting this only from reading results of internet searches since I never set them that way or bother to put an internal password into the documents.

I have run across several people who have a similar problem where the flag was turned on without their doing anything they can remember.

I run Word 2003 so can't be sure exactly how 2000 does things but from memory, I think it is similar. To be sure go into Help for the app and take a look at the info for tools~options~security. On mine there is a feature to password protect the document and another box to check so it will clearly show as opening read-only so no modifications unless you have the paswword.

This fix seems simple enough although the options differ from those on the version I'm using.

• Open the file - you may get a prompt asking if you wish to open the document in read-only mode. If so answer No but in either case, open the document.
• Click on file then on save.
• In the dialog box that appears, click tools and general options
• In the bottom of the next dialog, deselect the bottom checkbox (this turns on the read-only mode). Click OK.
• Save the document using a different file name.
• The original document remains read-only but the new one should be fine. Just delete the read-only version after conforming the new one is good.

 

You haven't posted which version of windows is in use here. So I am offering these links.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q308993&sd=tech
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=326549
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;256614
Here is a link to some software that removes attributes for you. I have never used them myself.
http://www.freewarehome.com/System_Utilities/File_Management/Change_File_Attributes_t.html