MS Word and 'read only'

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AndrewSchofield

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Hi guys,

I've recently started having documents I open in Word open as 'read only'. I then have to close the document again, open it again and it says the file was opened read only last time, do I want to open it 'read only' again - click 'no' and all is fine...

Anyone know why it is doing this and how I can stop it because it is very annoying. I'm not 100% sure but I seem to think this might have started when we renewed the subscription to Office 365 after the first 12 months....
 
Have you tried the following:
Locate the file on your PC via Windows Explorer (Hold down the windows key and E at the same time).
Right click on the file and choose Properties, at the bottom of the pop up window is an area called 'Attributes' with 2 checkboxes:
- Read-only
- Hidden
Chances are that the Read-only box is checked, simply uncheck it and click Apply then ok.
Now double click on the file and it should open up in Word but not marked as read only
 
No, its not that. I don't know if it makes a difference, but the files aren't stored locally on my pc - they're stored on another pc and accessed across a local network.

I've also just discovered that if I browse to the folder, double-click on the file this DOESN'T happen, but if I open Word first and try to open the file through word, that's when it opens 'read only'.
 
The only other thing I can suggest is opening the file via explorer.
Then save as (give it a different name for the time being) but as you save as there should be a tools > General Options setting.
Within this there is a check box that says 'read only recommended', make sure this is turned off.
Then try the document from within word and if it works normally, you can delete the only one and rename the new one to replace the old one.
Other than that I guess at least you can access the file from Explorer
 
Its certainly not caused by the file being open on another pc - for one thing it is a different message that appears when that happens - ie. This document is open for editing by another user, do you want to create a copy or open the file as 'read only' (or words to that effect)...

To reiterate, I'm not having problems opening the files to edit them, its just that the FIRST time I open a file it automatically opens as read only. I then have to close it, and then open it again - on the SECOND occasion I get a message saying "the last time this file was opened it was opened 'read only' do you want to open the file 'read only' this time", I click on 'no' and it opens normally. I can continue to do this, its just annoying that I have to open every file twice before I can edit it....
 
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