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?

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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.

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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.

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  1. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-01-25T21:50:36+00:00

    What happens if you copy the file to the new computer?

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-05T04:27:05+00:00

    I have almost the same problem.  Let me tell my story.

    1. open "Word 2007 or 2010" or "Excel 2007 or 2010"
    2. Create a new document
    3. save it (ex: 1.docx or 1.doc or 1.xls or 1.xlsx)
    4. open explorer
    5. fine the file
    6. right click on it
    7. click on property
    8. you can see read only has been check but it is not a solid color
    9. copy to usb drive
    10. open it at another computer
    11. you find that the file is read only file
    12. back to the first computer
    13. fine the property of the file
    14. un-check the read only
    15. click apply
    16. open the property again for that file
    17. you fine out that you will get the read only get check again

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-07T18:03:42+00:00

    This appears to be a glitch in Office 2010.  All of my new  docx /MS Word documents are created as normal files.  Somehow, without my changing the properties, after saving they automatically convert to Read-Only.  While appreciating the effort, unfortunately, none of the answers here address the problem.  Saving the same document in multiple versions - which I've been doing - to gain access to editing capability is not a good solution.  Really clunky and time-wasting.  And like another poster said, there does not seem to be a way to change the Read-Only status in properties - the "attribute" is not enabled.  

    We are still in need of a real fix rather than a work-around.  Any other ideas?  THANK YOU!

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