(This flushes out any errant processes that may be 'stuck' in memory.) Get out of Word and restart your system.

If you are sure that there is no other user accessing the file, and you don't have it open in another copy of Word, then you can follow these steps so you can open the file normally: A second instance of Word is running, and the document is open in that copy of Word.The document is accessible on a network and a different user has the document open.For instance, the power to your machine was interrupted for some reason. Word was shut down improperly and the owner file could not be deleted.If you see the error message described at the beginning of this tip, it means that one of three conditions exists: It is a temporary file (it is deleted when you close the document) that holds the login name of the person that opened the document. The owner file is a way for Word to realize who has the document open at the current time. For instance, if you try to open a document named BigBudget.doc, then Word creates an owner file with the name ~$gBudget.doc. Its name consists of a tilde (~) followed by a dollar sign ($) and then the rest of the file name of the document you are opening.

This file is created in the same folder as the document you are opening. When you open a document, Word creates what is known as an owner file for the document. To understand what happened, it is helpful to understand a little of how Word (all current versions except Word 97) opens documents. What would you do if you started a new session with Word, and then went to open a document, only to see a message stating that the document you want to open is 'locked for editing by another user?' Word gives you the option to open a read-only version of the document, but you want to edit the real document.

Another word for you all