One of my commonly used files has suddenly shown up as "locked by another user" which is totally false as no one has used this computer or this file in any way. Can this file be unlocked and how does it get locked in the first place? All the solutions say to just rename it which I did but that seems wrong to have to do. From what I read it must be a rather common problem. Is it a bug?

Hi Mendopaul,

It may be that there's been an accumulation of Word's temporary files, to the point they're interfering with opening the files. This is especially likely if Word has crashed or you've turned off the computer without exiting Word. See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211632. For something more specific, see: http://www.gmayor.com/what_to_do_when_word_crashes.htm. If you close all Office programs and navigate to the folders indicated in that article, you can safely delete any files with a .tmp extension or a filename beginning with ~. Do note that some .tmp files may still refuse deletion - that's OK.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]