MOSS 2007: docs open read-write instead of read-only

[SPV]

Hi folks.

I have encountered a problem with document control in SharePoint Server 2007. We are running IE 6 and Office XP with the SharePoint component. The document library has enfocred check-out enabled.

Normally when a users opens a Word document by clicking its name in the SharePoint library, it should open in Word in read-only mode. So if the user clicks Save in Word, the Save As prompt will appear so they know they can't update the original directly (because they didn't open it for editing).

This does happen for a while. But after a while, and I can't work out what triggers it, the document starts opening in full read-write mode in Word. It also opens from the temporary internet files area (the filename has [1] or [2] etc appended and spaces are converted to %20).

Once this happens, the user can hit Save and Word will apparently save the doc. But it only saved the temporary internet copy, not the SharePoint copy. The user doesn't realise and loses their changes. Angry users, harrassed support staff.

I have tried setting Internet Explorer to check for new content "Every visit to the page" but it didn't help, even after a reboot.

Anyone got any ideas on this?

I have also raised the question on the MSDN forum for SharePoint. If that yields an answer I will post it here to help my fellow Tek-Tippers.

 

[SPV]

As promised, some feedback which may help others.

This problem also affected opening Word documents from an intranet page, not just from SharePoint.

It turned out to be caused by a Word add-in we had developed and deployed. Not sure exactly what the problem is yet, but if I remove the add-in (or go back to an earlier version), the SharePoint documents open Read-Only whether or not Word was running beforehand.

So, if anyone else experiences this problem, try disabling any custom Word add-ins.