Windows 98, Word 2000. Gateway EV700. I recently had problems with Word and it turned out to the the Normal.dot thing I've heard about before. This morning I tried to save some documents to a disk and got the message that they're all marked "Read-Only." I didn't mark them that way (at least not on purpose). I can save changes when I'm working in Word but can't save to the disk. I looked under File/Save/Tools and the "Suggest Read-Only" block is UNchecked.

When writing files to a CDR (not CD-RW) disk, the files become "Read Only" because the CDR disk cannot be re-written too. Newer CD writers don't do this, although the same inability to re-write exists.

You can remove the "Read Only" file properties by right clicking the file and then choosing the "Properties" option on the right click menu. Uncheck the "Read Only" attribute and click "OK".

You can do this with a single file or with a group of files. To do a group of files at the same time, open the save location of the files. Select the first file you wish to change and then press and hold the Ctrl key. Select the next one, then the next and so forth. When all files that you wish to change are selected, release the "Ctrl" key and right click on a selected file. Uncheck the "Read Only" attribute and click "OK".

If you want select all the files in a group, you can use the "Shift" key instead of the "Ctrl" key. Just select the first file, press and hold the "Shift" key and select the last file in the group. Release the "Shift" key and right click on a selected file. Uncheck the "Read Only" attribute and click "OK".

And of course, you can use the Edit menu / Select All method to select all files in a folder.

I hope this helps!

Dwight

Thanks, Dwight...however, I looked at the document I'm trying to copy to the disk and it's not marked "read only" in Properties. I checked another dozen files at random. None are marked Read Only in Properties, but I tried to copy each one to the disk and always got the same message...can't save because it's Read Only.

I tried saving my document with different names. Still won't work. I even tried saving the "document1" that comes up when I first open Word. Same result.

I ran a Word 2000 "Detect and Repair" disk. No change.

Sometimes I love a challenge, but this isn't one of those times!!

Have you tried doing a "Save As" and seeing if that makes a difference? Also, you can send one of these files to me as an attachment and I'll look at it and see if I can figure out why this is happening. You will find my email address by clicking on my name on the left and going to my profile. Also, my homepage has my address: http://dwightblackburn.com

Hopefully we'll figure out what is going on with these files.

Dwight

Dwight - - "Save As" is what I was doing. I emailed a file to a computer at the museum where I volunteer. I'll try it there this afternoon. Here's a new twist. I was able to copy it to a floppy this morning, so it must be something specific to the CD. I spent half of my career supporting aircraft electronics systems so I'm not surprised at anything that happens in electronics. Frustrated, but not surprised. I'll let you know what happens with my latest try.

If the CD is a CDR (Compact Disk Recordable) you can only write to the disk one time. If the disk in question is this type, you cannot save any additional files or changes to the files on the disk, since it is already written to and closed. You can do a "Save As" and save the file(s) to another disk (floppy, hard drive, etc.) and then edit the file from there.

A CD-RW disk (Compact Disk-Re-Writable can be written to multiple times. With this type of disk, you can treat the CD like a floppy or hard disk.

Dwight