I have been working on this file and when I went back to open it I can't get into it. It tells me it is being used by another application but to my knowledge it isn't. I shut my comp down and restarted it and that didn't work. If anyone has any ideas that might work I would appreciate any kind thoughts. I have an HP slimline.

No ideas - What type of file is it??

I would have suggested that you restart your computer. Now when I say "restart" - I mean a complete shut down -

From the start menu choose "turn off computer"
Then choose "turn Off" NOT restart

After the computer completely shuts down - start the computer again.

This will give you computer a fresh "boot". This should also have terminated any running applications and should "free" files that were being used.

If that does not work, if you do backups - the other option might be to go to your last backup file and fall back to it - but only do this if your file was started before the backup. You will have lost any work that you did from the date of the backup - but it may be better than nothing. Good luck.

Thanks for answering but i already tried this. It is a microsoft works file.
It gives me the same pop up message i get if I try to open the wrong file in the wrong place.

Is Works running in the background? It is associating itself with something in your startup, from the sounds of it.

If you know the location, try e-mailing yourself a copy, sometimes that is a work-around. Another thing to try is opening Works and seeing if you can access it from the recently used list.

Also, look at the file location - if it is in a Works folder, move it to a document folder or you desktop and see if that cures it.

Right click on your task bar and click on task manager, click on that and you'll see a tab called applications... look to see if the program is still running. if it is, End Task.. if not, go to the Processes tab and find Microsoft Works.exe file and End Task on that.

Make sure that you have looked to make sure that there isn't anymore hidden in the Processes.

Then close Task Manager and try to reopen the file you're wanting.

Tuesy where do I find the task bar?

The task bar is where your clock is that lil bar at bottom of your screen ;)

you can also press ctrl+alt+del to bring up task manager :)

Oh I did that. Any more ideas? I tried copying the file and that didn't work. I tried sending the file to myself and my daughter that didn't work. I can't see any program that is running anywhere. I tried turning the computer off and restarting that didn't work.
I just started over with writing a new file but I know I don't have everything in this one that I had in the first one. I wrote notes to myself in the first one so i wouldn't forget and now I can't see them and don't remember what they were. Oh well!

I did email to myself and my daughter didn't work. I have given up on actually opening the thing but I would lilke to problem solve because I'd like to know why it did it. I have some EQ5 files that did the same thing a long time ago but they weren't important so I just never bothered to do anything about it. Now i want to know why!!!

Did you save it before you left or did you let closing as the save?

What yo might have to do is do a search and see if you can get it open from the search bar.
I am thinking I had some files do this when I was at the school and I cant remember how I got them open again......give me a couple days I should be able to figure it out.