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.

Try opening the file using Word Pad.

I tried the search after I saw your post and that didn't work either.

I had been working on this file for several days and yes I saved it regularly so I wouldn't lose anything I changed.

BellaBoo I don't think I hav Word Pad

I did find Word Pad didn't know I had it but it didn't work either. Thanks anyway.

Double check that it has the dot and wps after the filename

like
sample.wps
not sample

Maybe it got saved as a general file.

MS Works and MS Word probably act in a similar fashion. Whenever you open a MS Word document, it creates a work file. Let's say for example your original file name is Sample.doc. When the file is opened in MS Word, it creates a file named something like this ~$ample.doc. This document is created in the same directory as the original document. See if you can find a document with a name like above. Once you find it, try to open it up in MS Works. If it'll open up, you should be right back to where you left off. If it doesn't open, delete the file and open up your original. You'll be back to the last point you saved the document.

I hope this helps.

When you say directory do you mean the My Documents file that my file is in or is there another place to see this directory?

Try this - it worked for me when I had a file open using MS Word.

1. Open a window showing a directory other than the directory the file is in.
2. Open another window showing the directory the file is in.
3. Right click on the file and select 'copy' from the menu.
4. Move to the first window, right click, and select 'paste'

This should make a file of the original name in the new directory.

If you don't know how to make directories or use them, and if your original file (that you can't open) is in My Documents, then here's some more info.

From My Documents, select File/new/folder. This makes a folder called 'New Folder' and you can leave that name or change it, but you can use this folder for step 1 above.

I think the method from mytwopals would also work.

Yes, the My Documents folder is probably the place the original file is located. Directory is the old term for folder. Sorry. I should have used the newer term.

My bad too, I also interchange the two terms. :oops:

I made a copy of it because this worked one other time but not this time. It still wouldn't let me open it. It doesn't matter where the file is it has to be opened by Word and it won't let it open. I sent it to my daughter and it didn't open there either.

I actually have two versions of the file that I saved before this happened. One is without pics and one is with pics so i have two and it locked both of them up. the one without pics will attach to the email but still wouldn't open and the other one just says oops something is wrong won't attach!
I am out of patience with it. I don't know what caused it and I would like to be able to problem solve this issue in the future but I am beginning to think it is a lost cause.

Before I posted this I have

Rebooted
Copied the file
Sent it in an email to myself and my daughter
Tried to open it with another program
Checked to see if I had any other version of it _I don't
Checked the task manager and there were no programs running


Can't find any file with a ~ or anything else. Just don't know!!

oh rats, that happened to me once but i can't remember what i had to do. get online and into Microsoft or what ever your program is and see if you can find a customer service area. they do have help pages. good luck.

Thanks everone for trying I appreciate it! I think I am just going to put it aside for now. I rewrote the file so I am ok with what I was doing.
I would like to figure out the solution some time but for now I will put it on hold.

Thanks all!!

this is driving me crazy. i can't remember how to fix the problem, either.

do you have vista? if you do, try right-clicking on the file name to see if the option "restore previous versions" is listed. if it is, try that.

I have Windows XP Sorry to drive you crazy!!

Not sure that this will work, but you might try restarting your computer in safe mode. Once it is up and running try opening the file then. If that doesn't work, my yahoo screen name is [email protected]. I'll be happy to try to help.

Tammy

go to search, find the document, right click on it.
click on properties and where it says open with and browse, besure it says open with microsoft word, otherwise change it.

Thanks I tried that too! It is just locked! Sure wish I knew why.

Go to explore... go to the file file name, right click ... click on open with, select your program name...

This may help.

What do you mean by explore? I do know the file will not open anywhere but in Microsoft Works.

maybe it will never happen again :)

Have you tried to restore to the date you could open the file?

good idea, that will probably work.

How do I do that? I'll try anything. I have gone on with what I was working on and rewrote it but I still would lilke to figure it out. I have had some of my EQ5 files do this and I just ignored it and went on. They were locked sometime last year and I just never did anything about it.
I hope it doesn't happen again but since this happened now and the EQ stuff months ago I suppose it could happen again.
With the stuff I rewrote I started saving more than one copy of my file so I had something to go back to just incase.
Now I am gunshy in case it happens again! So if I could figure out a fix it wouldn't be so bad.
I'll probably have to see if I can find someone to look at it and play around to see if they can figure it out.

see the START button at the bottom left of your computer screen, right click on that and then on the menu, click Explore.

or try this help site
http://support.microsoft.com/

Did you right-click on the unopened file to see if the Properties show anything weird? Sometimes, the Read-only or the Hidden box get checked (by Microsoft Magic) and they need to be unchecked. Compare those settings to a similar files settings.

Sorry, that's the only idea I can come up with.

Thanks but I already tried that. Thanks for trying!

To restore your computer to an earlier date:
1. Make sure you save and close all programs
2. Go to start
3. Slect All programs
4. Slect Accessories
5. Slect Systems tools
6. Slect Systems Restore

When this opens you will be able to slect a date in the past that your document was opening o k.
This may take a little while and you will have to restart your computer.

This is what I do when all else fails.

Beverly

But will I still have everthing I have done after that date or will I lose all that? My EBook was done after that and I don't want to lose it!!!