In our office we have one person who uses a mac. Any Word doc she creates or edits on that mac is accessable to pc users over a LAN. When trying to open any of the docs edited/created on the mac system, for each doc there is another hidden file, 1KB in size, with the filename "._filename.doc." Does anyone know what theses hidden files are? Any help is appreciated. Thanks...
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Hidden DOC Files 1
- Thread starter dmears1
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Are these the Mac equivalent of the 'in use' files which Word creates on a PC? These indicate that a user has the file open for editing, hence other users get the 'Open Read Only' question when they try to open the asme document file.
Example: if you open a document called Example.doc, and look in its folder via Windows Explorer (with the 'show hidden files and folders' option enabled), you will see a hidden file ~$xample.doc
This file disappears when the document file is closed.
If you look inside the file with a Hex viewer, you can sometimes see the ID of the user who has the file open.
See if your 'Mac' files appear and disappear when a document is opened / closed on a Mac.
I hope that this helps.
Bob Stubbs (London, UK)
Example: if you open a document called Example.doc, and look in its folder via Windows Explorer (with the 'show hidden files and folders' option enabled), you will see a hidden file ~$xample.doc
This file disappears when the document file is closed.
If you look inside the file with a Hex viewer, you can sometimes see the ID of the user who has the file open.
See if your 'Mac' files appear and disappear when a document is opened / closed on a Mac.
I hope that this helps.
Bob Stubbs (London, UK)
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks for the reply...that was my first idea, but I verified that the files were not open on the mac.
They may be some sort of shortcut that mac's use as the filesize is only 1KB. I don't know much about macs...
Thanks again for the suggestion.
They may be some sort of shortcut that mac's use as the filesize is only 1KB. I don't know much about macs...
Thanks again for the suggestion.
Interesting ...!
Does the date and time stamp on the hidden file change, if the associated document file is opened and then closed again? If so, it may be that these are marker files, but the Mac doesn't delete them when the document is closed. I can remember that Ami Pro did something similar, years ago.
It might be worth checking ...
1. What happens if you open / close a document on the Mac's own hard drive? If the hidden files appear and disappear on this drive, then maybe they are becoming 'stuck' on the network drive through a delete failure. If they stay on the local Mac drive as well, them this may just be a feature of how the Mac versionn of Word operates.
Also, is there any readable information in the files which might give a clue? You could try opening one with Notepad on a PC, to see what happens.
Bob Stubbs (London, UK)
Does the date and time stamp on the hidden file change, if the associated document file is opened and then closed again? If so, it may be that these are marker files, but the Mac doesn't delete them when the document is closed. I can remember that Ami Pro did something similar, years ago.
It might be worth checking ...
1. What happens if you open / close a document on the Mac's own hard drive? If the hidden files appear and disappear on this drive, then maybe they are becoming 'stuck' on the network drive through a delete failure. If they stay on the local Mac drive as well, them this may just be a feature of how the Mac versionn of Word operates.
Also, is there any readable information in the files which might give a clue? You could try opening one with Notepad on a PC, to see what happens.
Bob Stubbs (London, UK)
- Thread starter
- #5
I appreciate the help...the files are unreadable when opening with Notepad, each file is just a line of boxes with a few numbers.
After trying your suggestions, the date/timestamp for the 1KB files only changes if any changes are saved to the associated file. The date/timestamp matches that of the associated file also.
I was just told by our Network Administrator that I shouldn't be trying to find out what these files are. He seems to feel they are of no interest. Thanks again for your help.
After trying your suggestions, the date/timestamp for the 1KB files only changes if any changes are saved to the associated file. The date/timestamp matches that of the associated file also.
I was just told by our Network Administrator that I shouldn't be trying to find out what these files are. He seems to feel they are of no interest. Thanks again for your help.
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