01-11-2008, 12:34 AM

I've been using Office 2004. MS Word is doing something weird, but I'm not sure what. My original document file disappears, and a load of seemingly random "Word Work Files" appear.

Why do I have a million of them, and where did my actual document go?!?

I'm using:
-Mac Pro
-2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
-5 GB RAM
-750 GB HDD #1
-250 GB HDD #2
-OS X 10.5 (with latest update installed)
-Office 2004 (with latest update installed)
- 4 GB USB Thumb Drive

This has been happening alot lately, and I have no idea why! Please see screenshot below. Would that fact that the file is stored on a Thumb Drive (FAT formatted) be of significance? It wasn't giving me problems before...

Any help is much, much appreciated!

01-11-2008, 05:17 AM

Is your word preferences set to autosave docs? That maybe the issue. Have you tried NeoOffice? Its open source free download and saves as word - opens word and does not get in the B##*y way of the operating system. Good luck

01-11-2008, 09:06 AM

As you have seen, MS Word makes temp files that it lovingly calls: "Word Work File" and then appends a unique letter/number code to it. These are normal, and they are part of the regular operation of Word. However, when you quit Word it should do some house cleaning and get rid of them. They only stick around if Word crashes.

01-11-2008, 12:33 PM

ok. I understand. But why does Word GET RID of the ORIGINAL file? Or did it move it somewhere? When I open the Word Work Files, it seems like they are earlier versions, but where is the one I saved?

Thanks for the helpful post, BTW

01-11-2008, 01:40 PM

Do you mean that Word is crashing? That is, Word disappears and you get a message that says that Word "unexpectedly quit?"

01-11-2008, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by musicvortex

ok. I understand. But why does Word GET RID of the ORIGINAL file? Or did it move it somewhere? When I open the Word Work Files, it seems like they are earlier versions, but where is the one I saved?

Thanks for the helpful post, BTW

That is exactly what they are, earlier or modified docs before they get committed to the hard drive. But usually worse than that, full of formatting code and gibberish. But Word shouldn't ever get rid of the real file! Is Word crashing? If you save a document with a very unique name, like "WhatTheHellIsWrongWithWord.doc" can you find it?

01-14-2008, 01:56 AM

Yeah. Word is crashing too. But I don't understand why, because I have all the latest updates installed. This is a big mystery. Hopefully it will be resolved by Office 2008.

Until then, any suggestions are welcomed with open arms!

01-14-2008, 08:27 AM

Word shouldn't crash. Despite all of the vitriol thrown at Microsoft, the entire Office 2004 suite is remarkably stable. You need to do the basic repair stuff, disk directory repair, and most probably, hose out font caches.

01-17-2008, 07:08 PM

I often experience the same problem. The original file that I just saved disappears completely from my computer. If I log out and log back in again, however, the file reappears and the Word Work Files have vanished into the abyss.