Word 2007 and 2010 open files read only

Anonymous
2010-07-04T20:57:05+00:00

I have word 2003 files that I am now opening with word 2010 (recently upgraded from 2007).  All existing files open as read only and I can't save them.  Even newer docx files.  How do I solve this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-05-23T10:45:37+00:00

One cause of this problem can be the Preview Pane in Windows Explorer.

If you try to open a Word file via Windows Explorer and you have the Preview Pane open the first thing that will happen is that the preview window will start reading the file to display the preview of that file, in the meantime Word itself will also start reading the file. Sometimes  the two process will conflict and Word will determine that it can't open the file for editing because the file is locked (by the preview window) and therefore Word will open the document as read-only. Large files and files with certain types of content can cause the file to be locked by the preview pane.

If this is the scenario that is causing your problem either disable the Preview Pane in Windows Explorer or open the file from within Word via File|Open.

Was this answer helpful?

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2010-07-04T21:14:13+00:00

From where are you opening the files?  Are they on a CD or were they copied to a CD and then onto the Hard Disk?  If so, the Read Only attribute of the files will have been set.  You can uncheck it by selecting the files (multiple is OK) and then right click and select Properties.

Was this answer helpful?

0 comments

61 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-17T06:38:44+00:00

    Hello,

    I had this issue as well, same story, Windows 7 and Word 2007.  I read all the replies in this thread and worked at it for 2 days very frustrated, and now have solved my problem.

    I was also getting a "cannot open temp environment please check some variable" error upon opening word, and also every file was opening as read only and not allowing me to save it.

    Long story short, this youtube video then restarted my computer to solve:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sUXfIyRelg

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-10-17T04:56:25+00:00

    Do you have the same problem as the original question that you included in your post?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-16T15:42:14+00:00

    I have word 2003 files that I am now opening with word 2010 (recently upgraded from 2007).  All existing files open as read only and I can't save them.  Even newer docx files.  How do I solve this?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments