Re: What does this mean "~$" in front of a file?

From: Jay Freedman (jay.freedman_at_verizon.net)
Date: 12/14/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:52:28 -0500

On 13 Dec 2004 17:04:08 -0800, oldminer1@yahoo.com wrote:

>Word has suddenly started to save a file I might be working on by
>replacing the first two letters in the file with ~$. It also saves the
>original file, but it creates and saves this additional file. What is
>it, why does it do that, and how can I stop it? Right now, I just
>delete the file to the trash can, but it's getting annoying.
>Thanks for your input

Those are temporary files that Word uses while you're working on a
document, as explained at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211632.

If you try to delete a temp file while the document is open, Windows
may tell you that you can't delete it; but if it does let you do it,
you'll trash the document. Leave it alone!

Word is supposed to delete all its temp files when it exits, but it
doesn't always do a good job. And if Word crashes or hangs, it never
gets a chance to clean up. In that case, *only when Word is closed*
(also Outlook, if you use Word as your email editor), you can safely
delete them. See
http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm for the
recommended procedure. 

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP         FAQ: http://word.mvps.org

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