WD2002: Read-Only Recommended Documents Only Open As Read-Only with Visual Basic Macro (275976)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to programmatically open a Microsoft Word document, the document opens as a read-only document and you cannot edit the document.

When you add the code

   ReadOnly:=False

the document still opens as a read-only document.

When you open the same document using the Open command on the File menu, the following message appears

PathName should be opened as read-only unless changes to it need to be saved. Open as read-only?

and you can open the document for editing by clicking Yes on the message.

CAUSE

This problem occurs because Visual Basic opens any document with the ReadOnlyRecommended attribute set to true as a read-only document, even if you attempt to set the ReadOnly attribute to false, as in the following example:

Start Word and create a new document.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
In the Options dialog box, on the Security tab, click to select the Read-only recommended check box.
Save the document as C:\Test.doc.
Close the document.
Press ALT+F11 to start the Visual Basic editor.
On the Insert menu, click Module.

In the Module sheet, type the following code:

Sub Test()

  Documents.Open FileName:="C:\Test.doc", ReadOnly:=False

End Sub

Press ALT+F11 to return to Word.
On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.
In the Macro name list, click Test, and then click Run.

The document opens as a read-only document.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use the following Word Basic macro instead of the Visual Basic macro shown in step 8 of the "Cause" section of this article:

Sub Test()

   WordBasic.FileOpen Name:="C:\Test.doc"

End Sub

With this macro the file can be edited after it opens.

WD2002: Read-Only Recommended Documents Only Open As Read-Only with Visual Basic Macro (275976)

SYMPTOMS

CAUSE

WORKAROUND

STATUS