Read-only mode in Word 2016 (Mac) locks out any edits until Duplicated and saved?

Anonymous
2015-09-05T15:01:42+00:00

Why do all docs opened in read-only mode (like every attachment from Outlook) lock down the file for no editing until it is saved? The new error bar comes up and says Read Only: To Save a copy of this file, tap Duplicate. Then tapping the Duplicate button brings up a save dialog box. I definitely don’t want to save the dozens of attachments I access on a daily basis, but sometimes you want to tweak some spacing to print a resume or any other number of things.

I get that Outlook saves into the temp folder, and I've ensured there are read/write permissions on that folder. Is there a setting I'm missing to fix this? I can't tell if it's a bug or feature. Forcing a save first would be a new and rather invasive design choice.

Anyone else getting this behavior and find a fix?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2016-05-06T21:37:25+00:00

I found a workaround to this issue.

I have a Mac with El Capitan (not relevant) and Office 2016. When I open a Word attachment from Outlook, it prompts to Duplicate which requires that I save it first in a non-temporary folder area before I can edit it.

My workaround is

  1. open the email in Outlook.
  2. You will see the attachment with a Word icon. Next to it is the PREVIEW button which uses the Mac's built-in Preview application. Click on the preview button to open it in the preview application.
  3. In the preview window in the upper right corner click on the OPEN IN WORD icon. It opens it in Word in edit mode without requiring a save.

I did not find the problem or resolution to be related to illegal characters.It's a deliberate sandboxing issue which makes sense from a security and UI point of view. It is a pain but, was put in place deliberately for a reason. I only started to investigate it after one of my Mac users complained about the extra steps. The biggest pain for the person was saving to a non-temporary folder area. If it defaulted to DOWNLOADS or MY DOCUMENTS, then this would have been more palatable.

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  1. Stefan Blom 353.5K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-29T18:44:37+00:00

    You can post feedback for Office at http://word.uservoice.com.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-29T18:31:57+00:00

    I agree, terrible design.

    Question for MS: Why is this considered better?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T17:11:03+00:00

    If this is true, then it's certainly helpful as it answers my question, but it would be (in my opinion) a terrible design behavior. It would be most unfortunate to have this long-available and useful functionality truncated with no benefit.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T14:18:01+00:00

    There is or was an issue where, if the File name, Folder name, Directory name, even Device name, has any of the Forbidden Characters.You would have issues with read only Files.

    Some of the Forbidden Characters are:

    Numbers before names, Superscript/Subscripts, +  *  "   '   \  |  /  <  >  <<  >> {  }  {{ }}  [  ]  [[ ]]

    (Numbers after Names are okay, but before extensions).  None of these characters can be used in the name of Hard Drive, Directory (Folder) Names, and any File Names, Device Names.

    And on servers: no names can have the name File or Fileserver  in any path names. 

    You can use _ (underscores). I haven't included dashes/hyphens because I haven't found any information. 

    NOTE: I assume because it may be considered a Mathematical operator that it shouldn't be used either. (But this is only my Opinion.)

    Check some of this out. And see if this might be an issue.

    _________

    Disclaimer:

    The questions, discussions, opinions, replies & answers I create, are solely mine and mine alone, and do not reflect upon my position as a Community Moderator.

    Numbers before Names?  Is that something new?  I've never noticed a problem with that before so I'm curious if that is documented anywhere at Microsoft.

    Do you know that applies to folder paths as well that the a correctly named file might live under?

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